The steady growth of the agro processing sub-sector from a modest and little-regarded pursuit used mostly to subsidize the incomes of poor families to what, in some instances, are, these days, significant investments in the manufacture of condiments from locally grown fruit and vegetables, is, arguably, one of the recent noteworthy successes in the agro-processing sector.
Time was when agro processed produce was vended mostly in hastily wrapped paper and plastic packages and from in bottles that often raised questions about the sanitation bona fides of the products themselves. How things have changed! These days, the manufacture of these fruit and vegetable-based snacks, condiments and seasonings is subject to the strict food safety oversight protocols that are embedded in the law; so that even the smallest ‘manufacturer’ of agro produce, these days, must comply with at least minimum factory, presentation and sanitation standards that are subject to enforcement and transgression of which are punishable by laid down sanctions overseen by state agencies like the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and the Government Analyst Food & Drugs Department. (GA&FDD)
If the efforts of the country’s agro-processing sub sector are not always crowned with success, some of these, with their fastidious adherence to high standards of both product quality and presentation, more than measure up to what is required.
Dr. Portia Dodson-Sammy may have more than adequate qualifications in microbiology and medicine to go along with an MBA which she secured from the University of Guyana. Those credentials notwithstanding, she leaves no doubt that, these days, she much prefers to speak on her prowess as an agro processor. Not that her self-assessment leaves behind her work in health sector management with the local Ministry of Health. The simple truth is, however, that she wants her life’s pursuits to leave a far more indelible mark on both human health and entrepreneurship. Heartsmart Enterprise, the company that she established along with her husband in November 2019 puts her closer to realizing that goal.
Heartsmart Enterprise’s products, six of them – Garlic Puree, Smoked Garlic Puree, Spicy Garlic Puree, Garlic and Pimento Puree, Ginger Puree and Jerk Seasoning – embrace both a sensitivity to the importance of pleasing culinary condiments as an integral aspect of Guyanese and causing those condiments to be mindful of the axiom of healthy eating. If one were challenged to select a slogan that might best encapsulate the spirit of Dr. Dodson-Sammy’s creations it would probably be something along the lines of “healthy food can be tasty food.”
In the manufacture of her products she presses into service well-known raw materials that include garlic, ginger and olive oil, all three of which, she says, “have been proven to reduce cholesterol and promote optimum functioning of the cardiovascular system.”
Her six products are marketed in glass jars and adorned with labels sufficiently eye-catching to rank them among the standouts in what, these days, is a packaging and labeling field that has grown by leaps and bounds.
Setting aside the role of her labeling as a marketing tool, Dr. Sammy decorates the surfaces of product labels with discreet messages that urge customers to “get active, eat well and control their blood pressure.”
Heartsmart, the company’s Proprietrix says, had never been afforded a formal launch. Up until now Facebook has largely driven product marketing. The company’s factory is located at 173 Sunflower Circle, South Ruimveldt. These days, she is preoccupied with embracing the challenge of taking on some of the marketing. The ‘journey,’ however, has been a challenging one. The COVID-19–driven lockdowns have compromised many of the planned tasting ‘excursions’ to local restaurants which had been on the cards. These may be ‘on the back burner’ for the time being though they are by no means off the table. An engagement with a local distributor, she says, “did not work out” though her products have still managed to ‘make the shelves’ of the major supermarkets in Georgetown.
A self-confessed passionate believer in product presentation she is concerned that the sustained promotion of her products do not become a permanent victim of a shortage of the attractive containers that she has chosen for packaging. She has already experienced a temporary shortage of her chosen jars arising out of cargo movement constraints resulting from COVID-19. That had curtailed some or her sampling plans and she is eager that there be no repetition of that episode.
Dr. Sammy-Dodson is more than a little optimistic that the selling point that provides a nexus between tasty product and healthy eating which she has created will go a long way towards growing her customer base. If her current focus is very much on the wider popularization of the unique range of flavours which she believes she has created, she does not give the impression that probing the possibility of an external market is ‘off the cards.’ That, it seems, however, will have to come later.
