How a Pomeroon farmer managed to make lemonade with life’s lemons

Jun 19, 2022 News

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By Romario Blair

Kaieteur News – According to one of the most popular maxims around, ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’ It was reportedly first penned by writer Elbert Hubbard in 1915. Its meaning is simple: instead of drowning in self-pity when facing adversity, always strive to be optimistic.In the Pomeroon, Oscar Richmond may have added a little twist to Hubbard’s quote.
Richmond’s story began when he couldn’t find a market for the plantains he’d grown on his own farm. But he never gave up hope and instead saw the prospects of a much greater product. Today, he manufactures and markets a wide range of Agro-based products which comes straight from his Pomeroon farm.
During an exclusive interview with The Waterfalls, the 38-year-old proprietor revealed that his business, which operates under the brand ‘Green Diamond Food’s’, is today supplying to much of Guyana’s domestic market. Among the products manufactured are fruit cake mix, cassava cassareep, porridge powder, mixed capadulla tea, lemon grass tea, and cassava biscuit. Green Diamond products are currently found in some of the leading supermarkets countrywide.
According to Richmond, “Since we started, most of the supermarkets we are in, (they are) in Georgetown – Foodmaxx Supermarket, the Guyana Shop and Massy’s…Mattie’s the food market, Bounties and many others. One of the biggest products for us is porridge mix, we call it the Power Mix porridge, this product consists of plantains, banana’s, sweet cassava, sweet potato and eddoes.”
Starting from scratch
There is a popular saying that behind every successful man, there’s a woman. In Richmond’s case, his wife, Michellina, has been toe-to-toe with him, as they both helped to build the business from scratch. The couple presently resides at Jacklow in the Upper Pomeroon, where they parent their three children. “It may come as a surprise, but this entire operation is being done by two of us; my wife and I. We started in 2017 under the brand ‘Green Diamond Food’s’, and today we have six to seven products that we’re producing nationwide,” Richmond said.
But before all of this, Richmond told The Waterfalls that he was a teacher and then a gold miner. “Back in the day, I was a gold miner… I loved the gold mining thing. After the price for gold went up, I went up in the interior and did some mining. I raised some money and came back out, so of course I had to invest it in some way. So, I invested it on the farm. I hired a machine, excavated and impoldered, and I planted some cassava and later plantains and so on,” he revealed.After a period of time had elapsed, it was finally time for him to reap the fruits of his labour. The reward, however, was quite disappointing. Richmond recalled that the price on the local market was extremely low, and the possibility of a profitable business seemed unlikely.
Making lemonade
While the low price for his produce was a stumbling block, Richmond noted that it was only a matter of time before he devised a plan to counter this setback. “The price was very low, so, what I did is that I chipped the plantain and we did dehydrated plantain flour. It’s the only way to save the plantain from spoiling. We went and seek the market for it but that didn’t go too well because there were already suppliers in the market, so we had to up our game,” he shared.
But, according to Richmond, the Ministry of the Presidency in 2017, played an instrumental role which helped to boost his business venture. “We did a course at the Guyana School of Agriculture…during that course they taught us all sorts of thing about manufacturing and packaging,” he said, adding that “we decided if we can’t find market, we needed to do something different. So, we consulted with persons who were knowledgeable in agro-processing, and they encourage us to package plantain flour.”
Penetrating the Market
It wasn’t long after gaining the ‘know how’ that Richmond went back to the market. “After a while, we developed our brand and name, and we went back and reintroduced our product to the supermarket, and as expected, the supermarket started to contact us,” he recalled with pride.
The packaging was of such fine quality, that it attracted the attention of the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC). Richmond said, “GMC has been a pillar in our operation, in terms of training, and marketing from the inception. They showcased our product when we could not go on any exhibition; we were not able to go to the Agro-fest but our products were there.”
He added, “They went to Barbados, they went to Canada, Dubai and they marketed… today pretty much because of GMC we had the bigger supermarkets contact us. They made the arrangement to meet with us and so the business relationship started.
Richmond pointed out that the brand Green Diamond Food’s, has significant reference to the farm. He said that diamond refers to something valuable, and green to the produce within the farm. “When you look at the farm, and see it’s green you see it is profitable. And today that profitability is being realised.”
Green Diamond is presently producing and marketing the capadulla tea, which is believed to be the first of its kind in Guyana. “Many people never ever heard or imagined capadulla being produced in a marketable form. But we managed to get it done. We are producing this product in the form of a tea bag. It’s in a box, well packaged and seal… in fact most of our products when produced, people think its imported,” he proudly quipped.

Steady progress
Richmond said that when he first ventured into the manufacturing realm, he had merely a hand mill, and was grinding up to 75 pounds of product per day. Today he has upgraded to a motorised mill that has not only improved his product’s quality, but also increased production from 1500 to 2000 pounds per day. He added, “It makes the work faster and lighter, but to use the mill I have to rely on a bigger generator, which means more fuel consumption. And with the gasoline price going up, so the cost of production will go up. So that is presently one of the challenges we’re faced with.”
But for Richmond and his family business, things seem to be on a fixed path destined to go up hill. During his interview, he announced that by October, Green Diamond Food’s will be launching two new products – a bottled wine and another tea both of which will be made of natural plant products.
Another major goal, Richmond anticipates, is to soon hit the export market with his products. “I love what I’m doing at the moment, I like doing a lot of experiment, being innovative, and I think that’s the fun part of the job,” he added.

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