The Story within the Story…Major threats to our overseas markets

Mar 25, 2018 News

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By Leonard Gildarie

We were supposed to be discussing the state of health care in the country this week. But there is something much more important that Guyana should be paying attention to. It could impact the security of some of our jobs, plain and simple. It has to do with our exports overseas.
The conclusions now are that we are facing worrying times for our manufacturers.
It should compel our regulators and Government to sit up, take notice, and take immediate action.
The world of business has changed considerably in the last 25 years. I know some business people who rarely leave their office. But they are in contact with China and India, and Saudi Arabia and so on.
But slowly, creeping up on us, are regulations from other nations. It would appear we woke up one morning and blam…things happened. Not so, the indications are clear.
The US has adopted several controls to not only protect its consumers, but to ensure goods coming are safe and are not from illegal means. From diamond trading to the anti-money laundering laws, persons wanting to do business with the US must comply.
It was only a few weeks ago that Kaieteur News reported that Guyana’s prized Gilbacka could no longer be exported to the US. Gilbacka is a species of Catfish. The US has regulations that Guyana must comply with. It appeared that authorities knew about those regulations for a while now.
Whether it is a case of authorities doing too little to sensitise our producers or whether those producers were unwilling to comply is beside the point. What is known is that the US found we were non-compliant. Catfish was restricted. We don’t have a dollar value what we lost to that market.

GREENHEART LOSS
A few years ago, our Greenheart market to the United Kingdom was closed after one of the big buyers said that there is not enough evidence to determine whether Greenheart was being harvested legally.
Before we move on, I want to place these two in context. Gilbacka, to fish lovers in Guyana, is an expensive fish. It is a fish that I love. Guyanese in Florida and New York and Canada love it too. It was good business.
Guyana is also the only country that exports Greenheart. It is a hard wood that is ideal for piers, wharves and marine applications, including for piles.
Guyana is moving to recover that UK market, but there has been little word of efforts. We were supposed to field a team to talk to the folks there.
Currently, we are in the final stages of the EU-FLEGT. That acronym stands for the European Union- Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade. The EU’s FLEGT Action Plan was established in 2003. It aims to reduce illegal logging by strengthening sustainable and legal forest management, improving governance and promoting trade in legally produced timber.
Failure to be compliant will result in our logs just not going to Europe. The certification means that we have to put systems into place that could trace a log straight to the tree stump, in the middle of the forest. We have been making significant progress and authorities here will insist we have systems.
There is no retailer in the US or other developed countries that would dare trade in goods that are not certified or suspect in origin. I am being told that the US has stopped even our pepper from landing there.
In Guyana, the fisheries, rice millers and other manufacturers have had to introduce safety and other systems to ensure that they even do business with the US. Food is serious business.
There are some business people who view the regulations very suspiciously. They believe that it is all a ploy to push out little businesses from small countries so as to foster their companies and local companies.
Let me say that all countries will take action to protect their local industries.
We took a decision this year to implement restrictions on pine wood to ensure our locals are protected. That was because our sawmills were complaining of unfair competition.
The imported pine wood was being sold sometimes even cheaper than what we were producing here.
Which brings me to another point. Why are we not pulling out all the stops to protect our products?

LITTLE PROTECTION
We know that Guyana has become a dumping ground for low quality products and we also know that there is little policing to protect consumers.
We have so many counterfeit items that I am ashamed sometimes.
Yet we hear of annual shows and expos for manufacturers, with little done to stem the flow of goods which compete directly, which attract little taxes. We have the ammo of tariffs, etc.
With our high costs of production, coupled with not enough money to properly market and package our goods (save for a few exceptions), I will say without fear of contradiction that we have a real uphill task before us.
We must force our administration to really take steps. We need training – lots of it. We need grants; we need financing to help build our capacity.
The issue of compliance could not be more pertinent than statements from the US Embassy just over a week ago.
The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), in collaboration with the Food Technology Program of the Cooperation Extension Service of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, concluded two training programmes that examined in detail, the requirements of US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) for companies that manufacture foods for sale in the US.
According to a GMSA statement of the training, FSMA is the most comprehensive revision of the food safety laws in the US for over 50 years, the final regulations to implement major provisions of the FSMA were published in November 2015.

LOOMING DEADLINE
Companies of differing sizes were given various times to implement these regulations.
The date for compliance for the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule of the FSMA, which applies to all food manufacturers who sell or distribute food in the US, started in September 2016 for large companies, and extends to September 2018 for very small companies. After September 2016, all companies exporting processed foods to the US must be compliant, GMSA warned.
Two courses this month discussed the key requirements for developing and implementing a Food Safety Plan compliant with the requirements of the Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule and the modernized Good Manufacturing Practices that go with these preventive controls.
Some 36 Participants were drawn from 12 large and small food manufacturing companies and agencies in Guyana. These participants now meet the training requirements for Preventive Controls Qualified Individual, who can develop and apply a food safety plan meeting Preventive Controls for Human Foods requirements and for Qualified Individual for all who manufacture, process, pack or hold food.
According to GMSA, Sandra Zuniga Guzman, Economic and Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana, highlighted the urgency for local food manufacturers to meet the requirements of the FSMA, as these regulations will be enforced for all companies shortly. She noted that, if these requirements are not met, companies could see potential difficulties in the export of their processed foods to the United States, and encouraged all companies to see the training as an opportunity for timely compliance.
I am quoting from the GMSA statement.
If the warnings sounded are not dire enough, I don’t know what is. We are not an island.
As a small, developing country, we have to educate ourselves, comply or perish.

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