The Florida-based Guyanese/American Chamber of Commerce (GACC) is owed a considerable debt of gratitude for agreeing to stage an event at the Critchlow Labour College on Monday September 26, the aim of which is to better prepare local small businesses in the agro processing, craft and other sectors to access markets in the United States. It is hoped that the information disseminated at that forum will apply to other countries that are considered good target markets for locally manufactured products. What will be addressed at the forum has the potential to help change the direction of entrepreneurial lives.
The idea of staging the event, which a visiting GACC official had broached with the Stabroek Business, arose from a consensus that the growth of the agro processing, craft and other small businesses in Guyana needed to have an export dimension which included, learning the ropes, so to speak, associated with exporting to the USA from Guyana.
It had been discerned from previous participation in the Florida International Trade and Cultural Expo (FITCE) that while Guyanese products were widely appealing, there were occasions where producers appeared to have been far from properly briefed on regulations governing the importation of foreign goods into the USA. These regulations apply, in considerable measure, to items of food and products purporting to possess varying degrees of medicinal power.
During an interview with this newspaper, Secretary of the GACC Melinda Gordon placed particular emphasis on the importance of Guyanese knowing the ropes as regards the regulations for importing various types of goods into the USA. The need to broaden the knowledge base of local businesses with export ambitions became fairly obvious. The idea, Guyanese-born Director of the GACC Wesley Kirton remarked, was to stage a forum that “could serve as a source of enlightenment for Guyanese small businesses seeking to do well in the USA.” While the extent of Guyanese participation in this year’s FITCE is still unclear, the GACC’s motive for staging next Monday’s forum was a good deal more far-sighted. It is intended as a long-term pillar of enlightenment that will, down the road, help enhance the competitiveness of Guyanese products on the United States and global markets.
Fortuitously, the staging of the event coincides with the presence in Guyana of representatives of the Guyanese/American Chamber whose participation in the event is welcomed as well as that of Komal Samaroo, Executive Chairman of the Demerara Distillers Ltd, a local company that can certainly teach a thing or two about the placement of quality local brands on the international market.
Perhaps the only real regret here is that the forum does not allow for attendance of greater numbers, given the accommodation limits of the Critchlow Labour College’s Glass Room. The Stabroek Business, however, will be affording this timely and relevant forum a generous measure of coverage in its next issue.