Business

For the better part of the year, so far, Jacklow, Pomeroon farmer, Oscar Richmond, has been watching a ‘new normal’ unfold before him.

In what is seen in some quarters as an extension of the United States’ ‘friends and foes’ foreign policy posture towards Latin American and Caribbean nations arising out of their respective perceived political postures, companies involved in the business of transporting oil from producing countries to markets across the world are now coming under unmistakable and aggressive pressure to steer clear of doing business with the South American oil giant, Venezuela.

Just days after the release of its sectorial survey identifying  key elements of the impact of COVID  19 on the country’s manufacturing and services  sectors, the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) has tagged the ongoing post March 2 general elections impasse and what it says is “the absence of a functional government” as impediment to the smooth operation of the business sector to operate. 

Back in March the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) staged a relatively low-key event at its Parika agro-processing facility to mark the ‘birth’ of Hana, its new ‘lightly salted’ packaged plantain chip.

It is altogether unnecessary for us to allow much more time to elapse before beginning to look ‘down the road’ in the direction of the likely post-COVID-19 state of the small and micro business sector in the Guyana economy.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday July 16, 2020 Kitco is a Canadian company that buys and sells precious metals such as gold, copper and silver.

Marcia Gonsalves-Kwang refuses to sit and watch what, up until now, has been a rewarding agro-processing enterprise become just one of a swathe of once promising ventures to fall victim to COVID-19.

Monifa Freso refuses to be consumed by the quicksand of COVID-19.

While small populations and farming initiatives of various kinds are commonplace in the Caribbean, there is still reason to believe that COVID-19 can breach the region’s less-than-impregnable food security defences if the pandemic persists for much longer.

Manufacturing high-quality food spices requires the strictest rules and recipes. In the first instance you must choose ingredients of the highest quality which means that you must have some awareness of the conditions under which they are cultivated.

Having gone almost entirely unnoticed in the global oil & gas industry for decades, both Guyana and neighbouring Suriname are now claiming their respective shares of the global spotlight.

The advent of COVID-19 appears to have set the stage for a ‘hackers holiday’ according to a report emanating from the regional telecommunications giant Digicel.

*Prices only represent the average Wholesale Farmgate and Retail Prices at the above mentioned markets and are NOT prices set by the Guyana MArketing Corporation or Ministry of Agriculture.

The probe that the Stabroek Business has been conducting these past several weeks in order to determine how small and micro-businesses have been faring in the restrictive environment of COVID-19 has been, in more ways than one, revealing.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday July 9, 2020

Even as the coffee manufacturer, Amy’s Pomeroon Foods Inc (APFI) continues, along with other local agro-processors, to feel the economic squeeze associated with a weak domestic market, and latterly, the wider economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the company’s chief executive officer, Louis Holder, has outlined to this newspaper a series of measures which he believes can grow local businesses and “keep Guyanese employed and the economy resilient.”

Better known for her contribution to the local fashion industry over the years, Guyanese businesswoman Sonia Noel, along with women from other countries in the region and the USA, will ‘stage’ a virtual event from Tuesday, July 7 to Sunday July, 10 as part of the launch of two collections of writings, namely, “Women Across Borders: Fulfilling Purpose With A Mission” and “Rising From the Ashes”, which were compiled and published in 2018 and 2019, respectively.