The feedback that the Stabroek Business has received from local (mostly micro and small) businesses that have previously participated in the Florida International Trade and Cultural EXPO (FITC) is that it offers a more than useful avenue through which to secure access to what can be, potentially, a fortune-changing market. This, in circumstances where the Government of Guyana, over several years has failed to create an enabling environment, either in terms of manufacturing infrastructure or providing significant support for regional and international markets, a circumstance which has meant that, for the most part, agro-processors have had to hack it alone.
While there have been other (lesser) opportunities for local agro-producers to access lesser markets, like those in the Caribbean, these have remained hostages to mostly non-tariff barriers which remain unresolved.
Those local agro-processors, craft, and clothing producers who have made the trip to Florida have spoken enthusiastically about market access and the potential of the event to change their fortunes. They have pursued those undertakings out of their own pockets out of a recognition that the returns could be life-changing. Such government ‘grants’ as have been available for businesses wishing to participate in the FITC event have, over the years, been strictly limited. They have been, for the most part, insufficient to be treated as genuine subsidies.
What the FITC event continues to offer is not just a host opportunities for local agro-processors and craftspeople to break into potentially lucrative markets, but also to afford our producers opportunities to test the quality of their products against producers elsewhere in the Americas where skills levels in craft, clothing and agro-processing are known to be high. This kind of competition can do us nothing but good by compelling us to raise our standards to higher levels thereby enhancing their global demand.
Truth be told, we can do a lot worse with our oil earnings than to invest some of it in the advancement of a sector which has demonstrated its potential to serve as a game-changer for ordinary Guyanese from communities right across our country.
