Information reaching the Stabroek Business from the Barbados-based Caribbean Export confirms that the Absolutely Caribbean ‘offering’ at the recently concluded Specialty and Fine Food Fair in London made a big impression alongside the various other high-quality offerings from other countries and regions.
Caribbean Export has informed this newspaper that the ten (10) Caribbean artisan producers showcased at the event, did the region proud in the course of offering a taste of the Caribbean to the 10,000-plus visitors who turned up to experience the international food and drinks trade fair.
Caribbean Export itself supported ten food and drink producers to participate at the Specialty and Fine Food Fair at the Olympia London, its gesture vindicated by the opportunity afforded by the event to ‘parade’ offerings from the region on a global stage.
Caribbean Export told the Stabroek Business that the group of regional entities that participated in the event came from Barbados, Belize, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Jamaica, St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. The organisation also reported that the ‘offerings’ of the participating countries “under a highly visible Absolutely Caribbean pavilion drew the attention of chefs, trade buyers, press, and bloggers, over the two days.”
These disclosures are unlikely to escape the attention of Guyanese businesspersons in the named sectors who were not present and who, we now know, are also unlikely to participate in the October 17-19 Seventh Annual Florida International Trade Fair at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Broward County Convention Center. This event is highly rated here in the Caribbean and in the Americas in terms of the market opportunities that it opens up in the United States for small businesses in the agro-processing, craft, and clothing sectors, among others.
When, some weeks ago, an appeal was made to government by the Guyanese/ American Chamber of Commerce to provide a subsidy to help defray the costs associated with the participation of what would certainly have been a modest number of local participants in the FITCE event, the request encountered an official ‘no, no’. A summary of the government’s response articulated in a letter to the editor of the Stabroek News (after the Stabroek Business had written several pieces on the matter) appeared to justify the denial of the request on the grounds that “such initiatives as are supported are usually those for which provision has been made in the Appropriations Act which is carefully crafted prior to the year of expenditure to execute the vision of the government.” It was in these grounds, seemingly, that the letter from the Ministry of Business informed that it is “not always possible to provide financial support to unplanned expenditure, such as participation in the Florida Trade Fair.” Government has been known to respond, selectively, to several requests for similar types of requests, made at short notice, previously.
The request for government’s support for local participation in the FITC event had come from the US-based Guyanese/ American Chamber of Commerce (GACC). Prior to making the request the GACC had, for the second consecutive year, successfully negotiated the allocation to Guyanese enterprises participating in the event, of twenty (20) display booth spaces free of cost. These would have helped to reduce the overall participation costs for Guyanese small businesses participating in the event.
This circumstance is unlikely to be lost on local micro- and small-businesses where much of the outstanding craft,
creative and culinary skills ‘born’ here continue to be stifled by missed opportunities arising out their inability to bear the costs associated with participating in regional and extra-regional events that offer meaningful levels of external product promotion aimed at boosting market opportunities.
On the whole and despite the impressive mark that continues to be left by the creative efforts of our agro- processors and craftspeople, the growth of these sectors continue to be stifled largely by what has been the long- standing insufficient official support for their growth and development through timely market-related interventions.
Prior to going to press last evening the Stabroek Business learnt that the GACC had made another request to the Government of Guyana on behalf of local businesses wishing to participate in the FITCE aimed at reducing the cost of airline tickets to get to the United States for the event.
