The International Trade Centre (ITC) in collaboration with the Small Business Bureau (SBB) is currently conducting a training course on small business management for coconut farmers in Region Two.
Speaking on Monday to coconut farmers at the opening of the three-day course at the Region’s State House, Regional Chairperson Vilma De Silva urged farmers to implement what they would learn at their respective businesses. She said that she was happy that the region was selected for such training and established agro-processers are amongst those benefitting.
“For any enterprise to grow capacity building is important and for that to happen the business owner must realize that record keeping is the key… in this region we have over 700 coconut farmers and it’s a big business here,” De Silva said.
Meanwhile Coordinator for ITC Raymond Trotz said that the training focuses on issues of entrepreneurship, financial management, record keeping and business and the regional administration. He said the initiative is part of ITC’s Alliances for Action (A4A) approach to coconut industry development under Phase 11 of the EU/CARIFORUM-funded project Alliances for Coconuts 11. The project, he said, is executed jointly by ITC and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) in 12 countries.
“The main thrust of Coconut 11 is capacity building of small holder farmers to facilitate and provide support to development of the region’s coconut value chain,” Trotz said, while noting that the A4A approach is aimed at assisting farmers in developing agri-business enterprises from production to processing and marketing.
He further explained that in Guyana, ITC is executing activities under the framework of several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) signed with governmental agencies such as NAREI, SBB and GSA.
He said that it is the desire of the ITC is to ensure that the coconut farmers use the knowledge to expand their businesses. Farmers were urged to organise their businesses in such a way so that it is profitable for them. Coconut farmers in regions 4, 3, 2, 10, and 5 also benefited from similar training. Guyana has over 1800 coconut farmers.
Owner of Original Juice Centre Ramanand Naitram, also known as ‘Juiceman,’ said that first day of the training was very educational and he was happy that his business is part of it. Naitram said that he believes that record management is important and he is happy to know how to prepare certain documents for his business.
