A handful of the country’s longest –serving private sector entities in the manufacturing sector have been singled out for commendation by the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) in its 2023 Annual Report setting out the various sectorial performances for the year just ended. The Report, made public last week, names Banks DIH Ltd and Demerara Distillers Ltd, both rum manufacturers, as making a stellar contribution to what the Report said was the G$70 billion ‘raked in’ by the manufacturing sector last year. The performances of the two companies were reportedly largely responsible for a 25 per cent increase in earnings for the sector over its 2022 earnings.
This overall performance of these sub-sectors, reportedly the highest recorded to date, marks what the GMSA regards as a shifting dynamic within the manufacturing sector, as a whole, removing the traditional focus away from rice and sugar towards other products that include spirits, beverages, processed foods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paints, putty, metal fabrication, plastic, and timber products. The GMSA’s Report takes particular note of the fact that overall, the manufacturing subsector expanded by 31.8 per cent in 2023, driven by increased production of fabricated metal products and nonmetallic products. The growth of the manufacturing sector, the GMSA says, is in large measure a function of the emergence of the energy sector and the acceleration of manufacturing activities.
The GMSA says in a release that based on data provided in the Bank of Guyana September 2023 Quarterly Report, key positive developments within the sub sectors include: increased production of paints and putty, which it attributes to the rapid expansion of the country’s construction sector. Other named local companies that purportedly experienced growth last year were Denmor Garments Manufacturers Inc. and the local bitumen producers DCSN which reportedly produced 100,000 tonnes of the product last year. The Report says that the country’s increased manufacturing capacity augers well for market possibilities that go beyond the CARICOM market, opening up possible market opportunities in Latin America, Florida, New York, and Toronto.
Guyana’s historic manufacturing limitations has placed restrictions on the country’s ability to capitalize on avenues for increased exports of Guyanese products, including food products within the Caribbean Community. The Report, however, made no reference to a reported agreed meeting between GMSA President Ramsay Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and Senior Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, to discuss an offer that had been made by GMSA’s President, Ramsay Ali, to have the private sector body give support to the state-run Small Business Bureau.
