When COVID-19 struck Sandra Craig, the proprietor of SS Natural Fruit Flavors and one of the country’s more dynamic coastal agro-processors, she was in the middle of contemplating a major leap forward. Arising out of her presence at a product display event in the United States, her popular barbecue sauces manufactured from local fruit had attracted more than passing attention from a potential investor’s interest in Canada. She had been invited to take her talents there, to ‘work her magic’ and afterwards to ‘have a go’ at the Canadian market. It could have meant, she had told the Stabroek Business some time ago, “an important breakthrough,” not just for herself but for local agro-processors as a whole.
When we spoke to Sandra earlier this week she had not yet put behind her what she sees as an opportunity delayed rather than an opportunity missed. She had, however, already come to terms with the fact that what had been one of the more successful condiments to emerge from the local agro-processing sector in recent years, had been ‘halted in its tracks’ and that while she felt the it would rise again, life and her living had to go on.
These days, her affability undiminished, she has turned her attention to a line of face and body ‘masks’, under the Forever Young brand as well as a line of health bars which she launched in June after COVID-19 had stifled her substantive market.
Last week, perhaps unsurprisingly, we found Sandra, focussed, ‘up and running’… her body and face scrubs, she says, are available in two flavours – Nutmeg and Green Tea – and she is full of hope. She talks about the market. As of now the Nutmeg flavour is doing better, though within recent weeks its Green Tea counterpart has been holding its own. For both the body and face scrubs and the health bars, encouraging markets have already materialised in Linden, Georgetown and Lethem.
Not that the market for her Barbecue Sauces has disappeared altogether. Setting aside the COVID-19-driven decline in demand, a scarcity of containers and labels have compelled her to reduce her production. The next shipment of containers due here, she says, is scheduled to arrive next month… that at least is what is being said. Packaging and labelling still pose significant threats to the future of Guyana’s agro-processing sector and in the prevailing environment the uncertainties are even greater.
“CARIBCAN” is the vehicle through which she was to have traveled to Canada to promote her barbecue sauces. She remains hopeful. CARIBCAN had already secured markets for the sauces in St Kitts, St Martin, Florida, and Canada, and she has already dispatched samples of her product to various companies in those countries. In some instances companies have sent her orders. Those remain unfulfilled up to this time.
She concedes that she ‘missed out’ on the small business support grant available through the Small Business Bureau. She blames the application process. “I am not computer savvy,” she says quickly. It is not an issue on which she wishes to dwell and she blames herself for not having been able to access the grant. “I had received assistance from Small Business Bureau to attend exhibitions and the like,” she acknowledged.
An enduring optimist, she leaves no room in her mindset for failure. “My business will survive coronavirus,” She says. The conviction in her utterance has an air of finality to it.
Possessed of a ‘hustler’s disposition Sandra discloses that back in February, she and her son started a “water business,” SS Purified Drinking Water from her 45 Norton Street, Wortmanville business premises. This ‘side hustle,’ she says, has assisted her greatly over the months. “It’s not a big income but it’s steady,” she says. Then she seizes an opportunity to ‘talk up’ her health bars. “The health bars are made of ginger and garlic,” she informs, throwing in a rejoinder about the role that these ingredients play in boosting the immune system.
Sandra promises “new flavors” of her barbecue sauce once the pandemic is behind us.
Small volumes of barbecue sauces still in stock pass into the hands of customers from time to time. For Sandra Craig it is a question of ‘hanging in,’ holding on until the tide turns… and she firmly believes that it will.
