Barbados distributors want Guyanese products on shelves – GMSA President

…agro-products “major hit” at Bridgetown’s Agro Fest

The participation of over 50 Guyanese exhibitors at last month’s Agro Fest in Bridgetown, Barbados, has yielded positive feedback with at least eight Barbados distributors looking to have local products on the shelves of the island state.

This is according to President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), Rafeek Khan.
Under the theme “Greening Together Ah Caribbean Thing,” Agro Fest 2022 was held in Queens Park, Bridgetown, from May 28-29. The event saw a total of 150 delegates from Guyana participating, of which 55 were exhibitors including 35 members of the GMSA ranging from a variety of sectors.

During an interview with Guyana Times on the outcome of the event, Khan disclosed that agro-processed products were a “major hit” amongst consumers in Barbadian.
In fact, he disclosed that just two weeks after the expo, several supermarket dealers and distributors from Barbados have already reached out to have Guyanese products on their shelves.
“Of those 35 persons who exhibited their products in Barbados from the GMSA, at least eight potential distributors are seeking to get their products on their shelves.”
“I think right now those companies are going through their thought process in terms of capacity building, their pricing, their compliance and be able to build up capacity to be able to ship to Barbados.”

According to the GMSA President, the interests were mostly in agro-processed products that were displayed by the Association’s membership.
Spices, coconut products and a variety of sauces are some of the key products being sought, he explained while adding that a local furniture manufacturer also received excellent feedback.
“But in terms of the agro-processing products, definitely those who have exhibited those type of products in an excellent way.”

Presentation of Guyanese products
Khan said the GMSA is extremely pleased with the efforts put in by the exhibitors to package and present their products, especially the agro-processing products, in an enticing way to attract interest from the Barbadian consumers as well as potential business.

He explained that the recently held UncappeD Marketplace held on April 30 to May 1 and the inaugural Agro-Invest Forum and Expo hosted from May 19-21 in Guyana played a critical role in preparing businesses for participation in regional events.
Khan noted that following those two events, they were able to identify the key companies who were “kind of ready” for the export market and help position them to take the next step.
With the assistance of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), the GMSA shipped a 40-feet container with local products for the exhibition in Bridgetown.

“Together we worked and presented the products with the exhibitors… On the first open day, I would guess to say at least 30 per cent of the persons were committed to the sale of all the products they took. At the close of the event the second day, 98 per cent of products were sold and committed. They didn’t mark it down cheap to get rid of the products. They went there and they sold their products.”
“It’s important to highlight though, while companies went there to do business to business engagement – to find distributors, to find investors, to find dealers for their products – what ended up happening eventually, without actually planning it, is that the consumers of Barbados were able to engage with these business owners from Guyana to understand their products even more.”
Khan pointed out that a distributor can talk about a product but no one can do that better than the manufacturer or maker.
“So, those 55 exhibitors who were there, they told their stories and they demonstrated their products. They got the feedback on the pricing, quality and whatever else. So, there were lessons to learn, what to do next in preparing their products with packaging, labelling, quality, pricing, positioning in the marketplace and so on. These companies had an excellent opportunity to learn and understand the consumer before they prepare to get into engagements in business for more mass distribution and marketing, which is important.”
In addition, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) also participated in the expo and received tremendous feedback for its finished sugar product. The Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) was there as well representing many of the smaller companies/businesses that could not attend the event.
According to the GMSA Head, efforts would be undertaken to see how those businesses can tap into and benefit from the opportunities coming out of Barbados.

Trade logistics
Nevertheless, following that overwhelming experience and consequent feedback, the GMSA President said the Association is now following up by working on addressing some non-tariff barriers such as logistics, freight cost to Barbados and consolidation.
Khan went on to note that the St Barnabas Accord, which was signed by President Dr Irfaan Ali and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley to create one domestic space between the two countries in areas across multiple sectors, has several key components that the GMSA wants to work on to implement this year.
Already, the Association has identified those priority areas from the Accord that range from the agriculture and agro-processing sector to housing and the extractive sector, specifically forestry and quarrying products.
“We also have quarry people who wants to send sand and stones to Barbados. We want to bring limestone to Guyana. So, there’s a wide array of products and services, I must say as well, that we could perhaps be exchanging between the two countries.”
“So, as we go forward, we’re going to be proposing to the Government of Guyana from the GMSA that we identify the key elements of the Accord that we can execute this year… There are going to be other elements of the Accord that will, of course, come on board but those are the ones that we feel comfortable with and I’m saying that because the wider segment of our membership are made up of those areas so we can be comfortable in taking the next step in engagement of business [in those sectors].”
As it is, Khan contended that Guyana produces a lot that can be sold to Barbados, as well as other countries. In fact, he revealed that currently, Guyana is importing more from Bridgetown than it is selling there.
“So, more to follow on what products we can actually get from Barbados at a competitive rate because Barbados is expensive. So, I’m not too sure what are some of the key products that we can perhaps be competitive in our market space. But there’ll be more products that we’ll be send that I can think of.”
In the same breath, he noted that there are a lot of areas in the services sector that Guyana can tap into from Barbados’ expertise. Already, the Guyana Government is seeking Barbados’ help to train professionals in the local hospitality sector.
The GMSA President believes there is scope to expand this.
“The service end is where they are going to be transferring [from Barbados] here and when I say service it’s the hospitality, the tourism, the architecture, the engineering, the professional services. So, it’ll be those consultancy, tourism type of services they can bring to Guyana that are non-tangible goods.”
“We’re going to be sending a lot of goods there and they are going to be bringing a lot of skills here.”