The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is inviting small and medium-sized agro-processors to participate in a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)-funded project aimed at improving the quality standards of their businesses and products.
The US$137,000 project is intended to enhance the managerial, technical and operational capacity of micro, small and medium-sized agro processors in Guyana, thereby contributing to their increased productivity, profitability and competitiveness.
Project consultant Eusi Evelyn told Sunday Stabroek that the project is part of a three year programme aimed at strengthen micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Guyana. He noted that following an evaluation in 2018, the CDB identified the challenges facing the various MSME sectors and sub-sectors and GCCI was challenged to design and implement various sub-projects to address these challenges.
“Agro-processing for these enterprises is like a survival run. They lack practical skills and formal education but they do have land, vegetables and fruits wasting so they find something to do with them, like pepper sauce or seasoning but they have poor quality standards and in some cases absence of quality standards,” Evelyn explained.
He stressed that in some cases persons are not even practicing the basic pre-requisites, such as operating in a clean and hygienic environment.
“Hand washing, tying of hair and use of aprons… we have discovered that there is a need for more to be done as lots of micro and small processors are family-based and work from their kitchen, with little to no modifications for mass production,” he noted.
The new project, “Improving Quality Standards of Agro-Processors through Training,” will see GCCI collaborating with key stakeholders in the agro-processing sector, such as the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) to offer training in Hazard Access Critical Control Point (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Packaging and Labelling.
“There are requirements that must be met in labelling so Foods and Drugs will help them with that and [the] consultant will help with design. Some people think a good label is lots of colour but nowadays with all these health issues people want to know what your ingredients are, so there are minimum requirement for labels. There will be a workshop to educate them about that,” Evelyn explained.
Specifically while the project is looking for at least four applications per region, they will be beginning the project with 20 enterprises with the hope that these will be representative of the regions where MSME agro-processors are working.
At the end of the project the participants will be expected to be HACCP-compliant but GCCI is looking for more funding to bring the participants to HACCP certification.
Those enterprises which are interested in applying must have been in operation for at least two years in Agro-Processing and be a registered business with a business name issued by the Deeds and Commercial Registry and be operated by someone between the ages of 20 and 35 years.
Alternatively those in business for two or more years without a business registration must be able to show proof of years of operation, and commit to have their business registered no later than one month after selection to participate in the project.
The enterprises also must agree to work with implementation partners and to make their places of operation or manufacturing available for pre-assessment by GNBS and GA-FDD and to participate in a post-audit of their facility by these entities.
Representatives must be available to attend training to be conducted by consultants and partners (GNBS and GA-FDD) for the full duration of the training and they must agree to make their places of operation or manufacturing available for pre-inspection and post-training monitoring by GA-FDD, or the consultant working on the project, and GCCI officials.
Finally the enterprises must agree to implement recommendations made by the GNBS the GA-FDD the GCCI and consultants working on the project.
The closing date for applications is November 16th, 2019.
