From the quiet of their Block ‘E’, South Sophia home, John and Fay Greaves typify the emergence of a fast-growing constituency of would-be entrepreneurs who appear to have singled out agro-processing as a potentially lucrative avenue for the satisfaction of what are far from exalted ambitions. They are taking advantage of the popular pursuit of the use of fruit and vegetables to turn out condiments of various kinds to create and market their own creations.
While agro-processing has long been a practice in Guyana that has produced a range of home-made eatables manufactured in ‘kitchen conditions’ and sold from roadside trays or else, given away, John and Faye Greaves’ JOFA brand aspires to higher levels of accomplishment. Their aim is to carve out a place for JOFA on the local market after which (who knows?) it may even find favour with external ones.
Under the JOFA brand the couple have produced and are in the initial stages of marketing their Pepper Stew and Sweet Pepper Jelly.
Stabroek Business’ recent exchange with John found him in a nostalgic mood. He took us down a ‘memory lane’ that sought to communicate a linkage between the old-fashioned methods of preparing and preserving foods which, in those days, were stored on kitchen shelves in already used jam jars.
It is Fay, it seems, that has been largely responsible for throwing John’s Pepper Stew into the contemporary agro-processing works. This, along with their Sweet Pepper Jelly certainly appear to have realised what, up to this time, has been strictly limited but encouraging traction on the local market.
Faye, a University of Guyana graduate-turned agro-processor is, these days, preoccupied with extending herself into entrepreneurship. She appears persuaded that JOFA’s Pepper Stew and Sweet Pepper Jelly may have ‘caught on’ with a limited market. This, it seems, has been more than enough for her to embark on a mission to effectively market the products.
Speaking with her just a matter of days after she had been part of a product display event just outside the Massy Supermarket on the East Coast Demerara, she talked eagerly about her concern with product presentation standards. It is as if while she is abundantly confident in the potential market appeal of JOFA’s Pepper Stew and Sweet Pepper Jelly, she has become increasingly aware of the huge contribution which product presentation makes to customer appeal.
Accordingly, she took ‘time out’ from our interview to talk about her consultations that she has had with the Guyana Marketing Corporation about label design and labelling on the whole and about the ‘extra marks’ that you can earn from the consumer for the proper sealing of food products.
Up to this time and like the vast majority of agro-processors in the micro- and small-business sector, Faye’s operations are confined largely to a well-appointed kitchen. The absence of factories that make for a smooth production process and what is usually the lengthy delays in securing food security ‘clearance’ from the Government Analyst Department remains one of the biggest headaches in the process. Not, seemingly, much of a complainer, Faye told the Stabroek Business that she is readying herself to engage the state agency.
Beyond that she is, for the moment at least, satisfied with a limited marketing effort before launching into the ‘big time’. While her packaging already appears to be ready for the supermarket shelves, she continues to work with the staff of the Guyana Marketing Corporation to further enhance her packaging and labelling.
Inquiries about JOFA’s Pepper Stew and Sweet Pepper Jelly and be made by calling them on telephone number 689-6420.
