UncappeD and the ‘spice girl’

Jul 25, 2018 News

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A little girl looks on curiously as her mom mixes spices. Her eyes are locked to every fluid movement of her mother’s fingers.
Rodiek-ah Defreitas knows what her mom is doing is carefully calibrated. It takes a lot of time, energy and skill to tweak each mixture to get the flavour just right.

The little girl also knows this task is vitally important. Her mom’s little home-based spice business brings in precious dollars for the household—a crucial cushion for a family struggling to make ends meet in challenging economic times.
What Rodiek-ah doesn’t know is that the lessons she is learning as she watches her mother work will be her salvation later in life.
And she doesn’t know that her deliverance will come through ‘Marketplace UncappeD’—the premier showcase of Guyana’s local products where producers and consumers gather to share ideas, innovation, encourage collaboration and celebrate Guyanese ingenuity. UncappeD Marketplace is organised by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association.
After spending quality time with her mom mixing spices, Rodiek-ah grew to love the business dearly and, as an adult, she felt an urge to develop and expand it.
“I grew up in it and I developed a love for it…” she says.
When Rodiek-ah left school and got a job, she had to put mixing spices on the back burner, but she didn’t give it up completely. She started making a few spice combinations on the side to augment her income.
Always inventive, she created a brand called Diekah’s Spices and dreamed of the day when she could market it on a large scale.
Her opportunity didn’t come in the way she expected. It came suddenly, under upsetting circumstances. She was fired from her job.
It was a confusing time for Rodiek-ah. She needed to earn a living and do it fast.
“I wondered what I would do,” Rodiek-ah recalls. “I said ‘Father God’, you know. . . I walked in the door, put my head down and wondered. . .”
What happened next was a miracle.
Rodiek-ah was deep in thought, pondering her next move with her head in her hands when suddenly her telephone rang, startling her into full awareness.
The caller told her there was a spot available to sell local products at the UncappeD Marketplace Agro-Processors Exhibition on April 29 last. The caller wanted to know whether she was still interested.
You bet!
Sometime before, a friend had encouraged her to show off her innovative herbs and spice combos at UnCappeD. At that time, she had no idea what UnCappeD was all about. After checking online, she had called to express interest, only to be told that there was no space available.
So to Rodiek-ah, this call out of the blue asking her if she wanted a spot at the expo meant only one thing—a divine intervention had occurred just when she needed it most.
Rodiek-ah was excited. It was an excellent opportunity to launch Diekah’s Spices and she intended to make full use of it.
With only a week to prepare, it would be a challenge, but Rodiek-ah was confident. She knew she could do it. A flurry of activity ensued as she eagerly got to work gathering and ‘mixing and matching’ herbs and spices, and packaging them.
“God was so good and everything was done on time . . .,” she recalls.
UnCappeD Marketplace turned out to be much more than she had ever expected.
Her spirits soared when visitors at the exhibition flocked her booth enthusiastically and gave rave reviews for the presentation and quality of her exhibits.

“It really did something for me,” Rodiek-ah says.
Buoyed by this triumph, there was no turning back.
Today, she produces seven combinations of herbs and spices. She ensures that they are prepared, packaged and stored in a way that guarantees supreme, long-lasting flavours and maximum health benefits. The packaging is also more attractive than when she started.
Her spices are: Chicken Seasoning; Garlic Powder; Cook-up rice Seasoning; Chowmein Seasoning; Fried rice Seasoning; All Purpose Seasoning and Fish Seasoning. She also makes Pepper pot, Jerk and Barbecue Seasonings on a limited scale, which she will officially include in an expanded line of products as her business grows.
Her Chicken Seasoning is a combination of turmeric, ginger and black-pepper with smaller quantities of other ingredients. Turmeric, she explained, has several health benefits and also helps to tenderize meats.
She includes dill in the mix for her Fish Seasoning because it has properties that boost good health. Dill is a good source of calcium, magnesium and iron, so consuming it regularly can help relieve cramps and depression, and it also helps to lower cholesterol, she explained.
Rodiek-ah buys a variety of powdered herbs from local businesses which she then combines. She also adds a few local ingredients, which she dries and blends. She says that local seasonings are generally sold in bulk and the cost is prohibitive for the volume she produces. However, she intends to incorporate more local herbs into her combos as her business picks up.
UncappeD Marketplace has a special place in Rodiek-ah’s heart because valuable exposure at the exhibition has done wonders for her small business. The popularity of her products at the event not only increased her confidence in her business but the event also delivered her first customer base.
Many persons who first became interested in her products at UncappeD have continued to buy from her. Arising from that initial wave of support, Rodiek-ah has been able to expand production and she also sells her products every Sunday at La Penitence Market in Georgetown.
It’s no surprise that she is a loyal supporter of UncappeD Marketplace and her preparations for the upcoming event at Leonora, West Coast Demerara on July 28, are well underway.
This time around, she is better prepared for her customers. She says she has upped the quality of her packaging with brighter, more colourful labels on the packets. Additionally, she will also present her seasonings in professionally-labeled plastic bottles.
After the exhibition, one of her plans is to visit homes personally and distribute samples. She’s also thinking of adding seasoning sauces to her product line at some point.
“My dream is to develop the seasoning, and for the business to expand so households would know of them and people would be able to find them in supermarkets,” she adds.
There are several challenges and Rodiek-ah admits that doubts and thoughts about giving up sometimes creep into her mind. But not for long; she has great faith.
“Eventually, with God’s help, I will get there,” she asserts.
Unshakable faith keeps her heart and mind focused on her dream of taking her business to ever greater heights. She sees God’s hand in key events in this process, from the beginning of her love for herbs and spices as she watched her mom mixing them, to the seemingly miraculous invitation to show off her products at UncappeD.
This spiritual connection means everything to Rodiek-ah; it’s why she believes her business cannot fail.
Look out for Rodiek-ah in her booth at UncappeD Marketplace on July 28 at the National Track & Field Centre, Leonora. If you’re lucky, she might tell you even more about how she became so many persons’ favorite ‘spice girl’. (Gwen Evelyn)

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