Business

One of the hugely encouraging developments in the local small-business sector has been the emergence of modest, women-led agro-processing enterprises that realise an impressive array of new products, which gradually, are beginning to alter the faces of our supermarket shelves.

Concerns being expressed by informed officials in Barbados and elsewhere in the region over the implications for the country’s international image arising out of the perception that the island is a soft target for money laundering are a microcosm of a wider problem facing other member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Socio-economic consequences arising out of official strictures associated with efforts to push back the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic threaten to spill over into the political arena in Trinidad and Tobago.

If the socio-economic crisis that has derived directly from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has, in many instances, necessitated shifts in income-earning pursuits that require millions of people the world over to change jobs and frequently, experience adjusted working hours, the World Health Organization (WHO) is cautioning against extended working hours that can result in serious health issues.

Over time, the multi-dimensional crisis in Venezuela, not least the political pressures being imposed on the administration of Nicolás Maduro by Washington, has widened into a humanitarian dilemma that includes widespread food shortages.

It may not mark a definitive turning of the proverbial corner in terms of relations between Venezuela and the United States but watchers of the situation, however, are seeing the decision by the Biden administration to allow the United States oil giant Chevron a further extension on top of those previously granted under former President Donald Trump to maintain a limited presence in Venezuela, as a sign that small cracks may be opening that could allow for a cooling of what, in recent years, have been tense, even acrimonious relations between the two countries.

This week’s Stabroek Business Fruits & Vegetables Personality is Mocha Housing Scheme resident and agro produce manufacturer Kareema Liverpool.

Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday June 3, 2021

Just a few weeks ago a farming   cooperative in the Mocha/Arcadia community executed two Farmers’ Markets over a relatively short period.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 917’s trading results showed consideration of $1,412,886 from 16,373 shares traded in 13 transactions as compared to session 916’s trading results which showed consideration of $88,432,883 from 1,106,256 shares traded in 17 transactions.

Given the level of prominence afforded what President Irfaan Ali had to say at last Saturday’s virtual diaspora engagement, it is difficult to dispel the view that his administration may be moving in the direction of taking more seriously, the contribution that overseas-based Guyanese can play in the country’s development, going forward.

With Guyana’s new-found oil wealth singling the country out as a potential haven for both foreign and local investment, investors from various countries are homing in on what they see as opportunities to realise lucrative returns from possible business opportunities here.

Locally grown pumpkin is somewhat different to the varieties cultivated elsewhere, the main visible difference being in the generally green and white exterior of the home-grown vegetable.

This week’s Stabroek Business Fruits and Vegetables Personality is Joodnauth Bissesar aka Cecil.

The Ministry of Education in Barbados has secured the support of a number of regional agencies in support of the rolling out in the island’s upcoming 2021-22 academic year of a School Nutrition Policy designed to support the nutritional needs of schoolchildren in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member country.

Now that Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries Guyana and Suriname have joined Trinidad and Tobago as bona fide oil-producing countries in a region that has, over time, had its economies stifled by high global oil prices, all eyes are now on Jamaica which would now appear to be next in line for oil-producer status.

As the COVID-19 pandemic persists in its frightening rampage, loss of jobs, whether through temporary or longer-term displacement, have closed off income-earning avenues for several types of businesses, arguably, none more so, than Farmers’ Markets.

The need for the Caribbean to ensure the integrity of its key and critical internet and other communication infrastructure as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make its presence felt in the various territories was one of the key currents of the discourses that attended the recent Fourth Annual Technology Community Forum hosted jointly by the Caribbean Network Operators Group (Carib.NOG)

The announcement a matter of days ago by the Dominican-born Director of  the Pan American Health Organisation Dr Carissa Etienne, that between them, Latin America and the Caribbean have now chalked up in excess of a million Covid-19 casualties, came just at that point in time when Caribbean countries, faced with some measure of indifference to strict observance of the related protocols as well as to the taking of the prescribed vaccines, had begun to double down on the strictures, not least curfews and complete lockdowns, in a desperate hope to fend off what is believed to be a second, possibly more virulent strain of the virus.