Just days after the Trinidad and Tobago-owned conglomerate ANSA McAl disclosed its introduction of fifty new imported products, including manufactured foods, on the local market, in a move which the company has described as “investing in Guyana,” the owner of a local manufacturing company has spoken out sharply against the development, demanding a local pushback against what he says is the company’s “investing in Guyana” tag line which he says could ultimately hurt the Guyana market for locally manufactured foods.
Louis Holder, Chief Executive Officer of Amy’s Pomeroon Foods Inc., a local coffee manufacturer who recently announced that he was extending his manufacturing pursuits into chocolate told Stabroek Business that ANSA McAl “Investing In Guyana” is no more than “spin”.
The sharp local response to the Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate’s announcement that it will now be distributing a significantly increased range of imported foods comes in the wake of calls from local manufacturers, primarily agro processors, for local food outlets to provide enhanced display prominence to locally manufactured products.
With Holder’s robust pushback to the ANSA McAl disclosure coming close to press time Stabroek Business was unable to secure responses from either government or the private sector though another prominent local manufacturer who declined to be named told this newspaper that “one expects that our business support organizations will have some sort of view on what Mr. Holder has said particularly given all of the trouble that we have had in getting our own products onto the Trinidad and Tobago market.”
A persistent advocate of an official policy that pays a higher level of attention to affording products manufactured here greater domestic market access, Holder told Stabroek Business that it would be “entirely appropriate” for our local Business Support Organizations to say “a few choice words at this stage about the damage which the proliferation of imported goods is doing to our manufacturing sector. We should not forget that our experience of Trinidad and Tobago is that they have had a robust protectionist policy as far as their market is concerned and that there have been instances in which Guyana has been a victim of that
protectionist posture,” Holder said.
“Someone needs to call it (ANSA McAl) out on its ridiculous claim about investing in Guyana. ANSA McAl is basically a trading Company, buying and selling. When it brings in products from foreign countries, it is not investing in Guyana, it is hurting the country and draining its resources,” Holder told Stabroek Business.
On Monday ANSA McAl moved to significantly increase the range of imported products on its supermarket shelves at Providence with a senior company official not only reeling off the range of new food products to which local shoppers will now have access but also emphasizing the environmental and health-related dimensions to its new product range. The new imported range includes Butter Kiss Biscuits, Pozuelo Cookies, Juan Valdez Coffee, Pam’s Sardines. Simultaneously, the company sought to promote its various “biodegradable” products including foil wraps and reusable paper.
While up until now local consumers have remained seemingly largely indifferent to the proliferation of imported foods, apparently welcoming the options afforded by imports, the continual growth of the local agro-processing sector and the frustrations arising out of the lack of access to external markets has given rise to calls for a local policy that levels the local playing field insofar as market access is concerned. While, by and large, supermarkets across the country, including the major ones, stock selected, locally manufactured products, some of these have had to face criticism for what vendors claim is a product display ‘policy’ that discriminates against local products.
