During the course of 2019 the Stabroek Business provided extensive coverage of the agro-processing sector. Our most rewarding return from that pursuit was the privilege of witnessing the emergence of new small enterprises, many of which, over a short period of time, served to provide modest but welcome incomes for their owners. We discovered in the process that a significant numbers of ordinary Guyanese, mostly women, are using agro processing as a vehicle with which to take decisive steps towards changing their material circumstances by embarking on entrepreneurial ventures that take advantage of locally grown agricultural produce. The Stabroek Business applauds the fact that these women have embraced agro-processing, a discipline that demands discipline, patience, persistence and ingenuity and which, all too often, takes its own time to yield the requisite rewards.
In 2019, our Agro Processors’ efforts to turn raw material, mostly fruit and vegetables, into creams, soaps, wines, spices, bread and cake mixes and condiments yielded encouraging results. For us at the Stabroek Business writing about the emergence of these various enterprises continues to be a thoroughly rewarding journalistic experience.
Setting aside the outcomes of the various pursuits, our coverage also took account of the ingenuity, drive, unrelenting effort and sustained determination that yielded the various outcomes.
All of these and more were embodied in the effort of a young woman named Kelshine Griffith, a 22-year-old graduate of the Guyana School of Agriculture whose agro-processing pursuits have yielded a gluten-free Sweet Potato Cake Mix which adds a new dimension to cake and pastry making. It is as much the novelty of her creation as the single-mindedness that she has demonstrated in pursuit of creating her now popular creation that influenced our decision to name her The Stabroek Business 2019 Agro Processor of the Year.
Kelshine has taken full advantage of the opportunity afforded by her access to the facilities at the Guyana School of Agriculture to produce her cake mix. Over the Christmas holidays she not only worked virtually alone and tirelessly to produce sufficient product to meet the seasonal fruit cake demand but also ensured that she was positioned to supply buyers at the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s Farmers’ Market as well the various other seasonal marketing opportunities.
Mindful of the virtue of product presentation Kelshine has simultaneously focused her efforts on producing an eye-catching box (which she says is still a work in progress) in which to present her product.
Her effort does not stop there. She is currently preoccupied with engaging the state-run Small Business Bureau with a view to securing funding to acquire her own Mill with which to process the dried sweet potato into cake mix.
Kelshine says that plans to acquire farm land on which to cultivate the sweet potato necessary for the production of her cake nix as well as likely experiments with other crops that might serve to expand the range of her products, are two initiatives that are on her radar.
Her registered Business, Shine Agri Manufacturing can be reached at kdelshineg@yahoo.com. (telephone #6888445)
The Stabroek Business applauds Kelshine’s energy and enterprise and wishes her well.
