In a short while, yet another group of creative people from the agro-processing and craft sectors, predominantly, will be heading for a high profile product display and marketing opportunity in the United States. These events, we have come to understand, can be crucial to the longer term future of what, invariably, are modest local enterprises that have little if any ‘connection’ with the outside world, depending mostly on the strictly limited patronage that derives from local sales and the still relatively small numbers of tourists who come to Guyana.
While local representation at international trade fairs have been going on long enough so that many of our creative people have now become seasoned travellers, these overseas adventures do not always have happy endings. Our own frequent discourses with some of the travellers have disclosed that things can go well or badly depending on how well they are planned and when the planning goes badly the whole exercise can turn out to be close to a disaster.
One of the concerns that manifest themselves all too frequently in the planning of overseas trade show trips is what has become a customary last-minute rush arising out of what has become a culture of indiscipline. There are, of course, instances, in which preparation time is cut short on account of time spent seeking out sponsorship so that the time spent by the travelers understanding what it is that they are getting into is strictly limited.
The attendant problems can be manifold, ranging from insufficient knowledge of customs procedures in the receiving countries, which, of course, can have implications for being able to import ‘exhibits’ or items for sale into the host country. Food ‘imports,’ for example, are, these days, subjected to a broad range of safety-regulated regulations. Ignorance of these can lead to disasters for would-be participants in international trade shows.
Then there are regulations associated with the events themselves… seemingly small things that have to with the types of items that can be displayed or sold, standards associated with labelling and packaging and considerations that have to do with booth space. There are instances in which, some international trade fairs, however meticulous the planning, actually end up being pretty competitive affairs among the exhibitors so that knowing the rules and how they apply can determine the success or failure of the venture for individual participants.
There is no denying the fact that the agro-processing, craft and clothing sectors have become our leading sectors as far as external promotion is concerned. With each of these sectors having the potential to afford meaningful and gainful employment, significantly, self-employment, there is every reason why local business owners who invest (considerably in many instances, since grants for these events are becoming scarcer) are afforded the best possible opportunity to do well at these events.
It is true that GO-Invest for example, has been known to hold briefing sessions for attendees at international trade fairs and that sometimes the misfortune that befalls some participants is a function of their own decision to set the laid down rules aside. On the whole, however, sometimes it appears that the undue haste, hurry, and anticipation, associated with participation in trade fairs abroad engenders a lack of the kind of planning which, once it is overlooked, frequently renders the entire initiative counterproductive.
One concern that arises here has to do with lack of experience. What is clear is that the agro-processing sector, for example, has over the years, admitted a great many entrants whose skills as manufacturers are not matched by their business acumen. There is nothing wrong with that as long as the investor understands that manufacturing capabilities that are not attended by some measure of business acumen can well be a recipe for disaster. This newspaper’s experience in dealing with agro-processors is that many of them, while being talented, determined and thoroughly committed, may not always make the best business decisions purely out of a lack of knowledge. At that point we wonder to ourselves as to whether orthodox business training for persons venturing into agro-processing, ought not to be more widespread given the fact that in the absence of such, perfectly viable business initiatives may simply collapse.
To return to the business of participating in international trade fairs which, in effect is about external marketing, we believe that in the case of local participants (and, interestingly, most of them are small businesses), the government and the local business support entities should not only share the responsibility for offering the relevant guidance and advice but that they should also play a role in providing information to would-be participants heading to these external events so as to ensure that they are in fact ready for them since the price of getting it wrong could mean ruin.
