Guyanese business owners are continuing to showcase their products at the Benab Duty-Free Shop being hosted by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) at the Umana Yana at Kingston.
Manufacturers, including producers of crafts, food seasonings, beverages and jewellery, are hoping to find customers and potential investors from among attendees at the ongoing Inter-national Energy Conference and Expo.
Among them is Andrew Campbell, a young Guyanese from Moruca, Region One, who is founder of the Ebesowana Natural Foods, which was established in 2019.
Ebesowana makes products from fruits and spices, including ginger powder and drinking chocolate, which is processed from cocoa beans.
“Ebesowana means to change or transform. We specialise in doing dehydrated food, mainly from the fruits along with herbs and spices. We also specialise in doing dark chocolates, and we’re the only company that is certified to manufacture dark chocolate,” Campbell stated.
The manufacturer hopes to gain recognition internationally and just as important wider recognition within Guyana.
In addition, one of Guy-ana’s popular spice manufactures, Roy’s Quality Spices, is also exhibiting products at the venue. Speaking with Stabroek News, Govinda Singh, the Marketing and Sales Manager for the company, noted that the business has been operating since 1996. It was founded by his father, Lakiraj Singh, who started out as a spice trader. He was hopeful of using the exhibition to link with foreign-based companies so that his products can eventually be exported internationally.
This newspaper also spoke with Vade Persaud, Managing Director of jewellery manufacturers L. Seepersaud Maraj and Sons, who said his company viewed the exhibition as marketing exercise. “We specialise in hand-crafted jewellery made from 100% only Guyana gold and Guyana diamonds [by] Guyana workmen who we trained over the years [and] who have become experts in hand-crafted jewellery. The exhibition at the Umana Yana is more of a marketing exercise to establish ourselves on the international scene with the delegates who are currently visiting Guyana within this week,” Persaud explained.
Additionally, “Frankie”, of Frankie’s Sea Glass Productions, told this newspaper that his business emerged during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He had started to do shell and wood-crafting but ventured into sea-glass production. “When [the pandemic] start I used to do shell work but during the [pandemic] I start to think further, so I started to pick up the sea-glass from the beach and so on and now I’m making chandelier lights, tables, picture frames and many other thing,” he explained.
DuraVilla Homes Guyana Inc. is exhibiting a variety of Guyana’s timbers and has set up a house at the venue and GMSA President Rafeek Khan said it is hoped that they change buyers’ perspectives on timber. “We want to change that concept as a paradigm shift—-timber is sustainable, timber is energy sufficient, it is a biodegradable material. It’s not just timber, this is duo-tropical hard wood,” stated Khan, who was hopeful of attracting the interest of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley in order to possibly build homes in Barbados.
Although products are also on sale at the expo, the manufacturers who spoke with this newspaper noted that sales have been slow over the last two days of the conference. However, they added that they are mainly looking at the event largely as an opportunity to showcase their products with the hopes of finding both customers and investors who could help them find markets in the region and on the international scene.
