Business

With the COVID-19 pandemic challenging the international community to find ways around the restraints imposed by social distancing, there is evidence that some countries are already embracing technology to arrive as close as they can to a condition of normalcy insofar as interaction associated with bringing buyers and consumers together is concerned.

                                          Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday June 25, 2020

These past few weeks the Stabroek Business has been engaging small business owners in order to determine the extent of the impact that COVID-19 has had on their enterprises.

*Prices only represent the average Wholesale Farmgate and Retail Prices at the above mentioned markets and are NOT prices set by the Guyana MArketing Corporation or Ministry of Agriculture.

Even as conventional ‘high street’ businesses closed their doors having been left with little option but to ‘wait out’ the coronavirus pandemic, small businesses in the agriculture and agro-processing sectors have had to apply themselves to creative ways of keeping their enterprises afloat.

Mainstream medical opinion may still be decidedly reluctant to pronounce definitively on just how important a role old-style ‘bush’ remedies, popular in the Caribbean, contributes to the health and wellness regime in the region.

Countries with strong agricultural bases are likely to be encouraged by the most recent assessment of the global food market released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which projects that the agri-foods sector is likely to continue to demonstrate a greater resilience in the face of the continued COVID-19 threat.

The new Guyana Marketing Corporation has agreed to provide us with the above information which we will publish on a weekly basis subject to receipt.

A recent assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the global food security situation – some aspects of which are reported in this issue of the Stabroek Business – strongly suggests that at least up until now and in the wake of the advent of COVID-19,  global supplies are holding their own even though, worryingly, longer-term availability threats still revolve around high prices as well as challenges associated with getting supplies to those regions where life-threatening shortages exist.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday June 18,2020 Kitco is a Canadian company that buys and sells precious metals such as gold, copper and silver.

Recently-elected President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Shyam Nokta has told the Stabroek Business that the Association intends to move quickly to engage with “a political administration that reflects the will of the people” with a view to lending continuity to previous discourses with government on issues affecting various sub-sectors in the manufacturing sector in Guyana.

Raising awareness of the importance of food safety as a routinised aspect of our food consumption culture will, in the period ahead, become increasingly critical to the general well-being of Guyana and will, “more and more” become a yardstick with which to measure our development, Government Analyst-Food & Drugs Department (GA-FDD) Director, Dr Marlan Cole has told the Stabroek Business.

As the region moves to create a collective response to some of the setbacks that have arisen out of the advent of COVID-19 and its impact on the economies of the respective countries, there are indications that some of the key entities for the planning and execution of collective responses, including the Caribbean Commu-nity (CARICOM) are beginning to take practical initiatives to design ways of tackling their collective challenges head on.

With the frenetic global search for a cure for COVID-19 having reached a fever pitch, recent seizures of fake drugs in various countries have included considerable quantities of drugs that are being touted as protection against the virus.

The sight of Iranian gasoline tankers arriving off the coast of Venezuela to deliver desperately needed supplies of gasoline to the crisis-hit country would have been ‘a sight for sore eyes’ for Venezuelan motorists who had had to ‘live through’ a relatively short but traumatic gasoline shortage.

A seasoned Guyanese businessman who spoke to the Stabroek Business on condition that he be described only as a “frequent flier” has said that the recently announced phased re-opening of the Cheddi Jagan and Eugene F Correia International Airports announced by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has to be approached with “extreme caution” since “the nature of international air travel allows for things to go wrong once they are overlooked; and believe me, it is easy for things that we have little or no control over to be overlooked,” the businessman added.

Local cherry juice manufacturer Fitzroy Fletcher wants to see the West Indian cherry, known globally as Acerola, featuring far more prominently in the food consumption profile of Guyanese given the fact that it remains one of nature’s richest sources of Vitamin C, possessing twenty times that of the orange.