Drugs in local agro-products concerns Canadian buyers

May 20, 2014 News

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Canadian agro buyers are concerned about the prevalence of drug finds inside shipments of Guyanese food products. In fact, this has limited the numbers of Canadian buyers who participated in a four-day Buyers Mission from Canada to Guyana.
The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), in a press statement, said that the team of Buyers and Distributors from Toronto and Montreal, was led by veteran trade expert, Bertrand Walle, attached to the Trade Facilitation Office (TFO) Canada.
Walle reportedly said that the group of Canadian buyers would have been bigger had it not been for pervasive concerns in business circles in Canada about the prevalence of drug finds inside shipments of Guyanese food products.
Somewhat acknowledging the problem, Yonette Heyliger, a Senior Manager of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) explained that the surreptitious export of narcotics is the biggest challenge faced by the authority. The agency constantly has to find new ways and means to combat this scourge.
She referred to the two container scanners GRA invested in, and the methods employed by the Goods and Drugs Examination Units, including total manual examinations for profiled containers.  Players in the narcotics trade have become creative, she said.
Walle questioned whether there was an explanation for reports that drugs were inserted into containers after they had passed through the Customs Department’s verification procedures.
He noted that there is a significant amount of interest abroad among importers about the likelihood of their containers being breached while on the wharves in Guyana and elsewhere as well.  This was one of a few safety and other fundamental issues that still need to be addressed, he said.
These exchanges were made at the four-day event which closed on May1at GMSA’s boardroom. It saw the participation of all the main players in Guyana’s agricultural, manufacturing and exporting milieu. The forum allowed discussions and analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by local small to medium scale growers and processors.
The Canadian Executive Services Organisation (CESO) along with representatives of the Guyana office of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, the Food and Drugs Department, and the Trade and Development Office in the Canadian High Commission also participated.
The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), though absent from the review, played a significant role throughout the life of the project, the release said.
Walle told the gathering that the Mission to Guyana was short but challenging and interesting. It outlined the areas which the local growers and agro-processors still need to perfect in order to improve their readiness to sell their products in the Canadian market.
Nevertheless, most of the buyers managed to establish business ties with several local producers, some of whom were involved in this TFO’s Trade Capacity Building pilot project from its inception in 2009.
The release said that one remigrant Guyanese Customs agent/facilitator spoke about the absence of the “CaribCan” stamp on Guyanese products, which usually attract a five percent tariff discount at Canada’s ports of entry.
The GMSA’s Trade and Investment Committee Chairman, Clement Duncan, gave a commitment to pursue this.
The group also discussed the absence of transportation facilities direct to Canada.
Duncan said that Caribbean Airlines has “opened a window of opportunity”, but noted that currently, agro-cargo destined for Canada still has to be offloaded in Miami then trucked to Toronto. This is time consuming and costly, and could affect the quality of the products reaching the intended market.
This issue is being addressed by the GMSA and at the level of the National Competitiveness Council, the release said.
“On a more positive note, the team of Canadian Importers and Distributors stated that their site visits indicated that Guyana’s products met the criteria for quality, price and taste,” GMSA said.
It was noted that the Canadian buyers believe the high freight costs were prohibitive, and that there was too much uncertainty with respect to timely delivery.
The release said that the Canadian buyers agreed that the visit to Guyana was worthwhile and that it helped to improve their understanding of and appreciation for this market.  The products they were most interested in included sauces (pepper, seasoning, etc.), noodles, beverages, spices, preserves (jams and jellies), coconuts and coconut products, cassareep, fresh and frozen fruits, fresh fish, edible oil, peas and pickles.
Dr. Maxine Parris of IICA, who was the point person for this Buyers Mission, outlined the purposes and expected outcomes.
She noted that the Mission concluded a very involved trade-related Capacity Building Project for Guyanese growers and agro-food manufacturers, and was preceded by two Sellers Missions.  The initial grouping of SME’s was established in 2009 when the project was conceived by the Trade Facilitation Office of Canada in collaboration with the GMSA, CESO and IICA with funding from the Canadian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), formerly CIDA.
Ten Guyanese producers have been participating in this project. They include the Kuru Kururu Growers Cooperative Association, Tandy’s Manufacturing, Prestige Bottling Enterprise and Jet’s Enterprise in Demerara, and Original Juices, Henvil Farms, Pomeroon Oil Mills and Ramotar Investments in the Essequibo.  Mohan’s Fruits & Vegetables, Banks DIH and Nand Persaud Company in Berbice also participated in this Buyers Mission.
During the process, the operations in each producer’s facilities were subjected to rigorous examinations.  The primary objectives were to improve the export capacity of their products, to boost their post-harvest handling techniques, and to encourage them to implement Product Traceability systems.
Ultimately, they would qualify for international certification, especially the Organic Product Certificate and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) certificate.
The GMSA fully intends to extend this project, follow up on new initiatives, and increase the catchment grouping of potential agro-product exporters to Canada.

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