The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Friday morning launched the second phase of UncappeD – an agro-processing fair aimed at showcasing all things Guyanese.
The event will be held on April 29 at the Guyana National Stadium in Providence, East Bank Demerara.
UncappeD is a fully private sector-led initiative that is free to exhibitors as well as the general public. This year, the GMSA teamed up with oil giant ExxonMobil so that the event could be bigger.
At the launch of UncappeD at the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin urged Guyanese to support local.
“The more local products that we consume, the more we support our local industries and the more we help in job creation and poverty alleviation. I am not saying that we should not eat imported food, I am saying that we should minimize what we import and try to experiment with local products,” Gaskin stated.
The Business Minister however underscored the need local manufacturers to learn how to improve packaging so that their products can be more attractive to consumers.
First Vice President of the GMSA, Ramsay Ali explained that the idea behind UncappeD was to promote agro-products made in Guyana. Alluding to last year’s inaugural event which was held at the Sophia Exhibition Centre, Ali noted that there were about 60 exhibitors and over 5000 persons visiting.
“We believe that agro-processing has a place in Guyana. To export things out of Guyana in the primary – you don’t make any money from that. In the meantime, what we want to do is to build the capacity of the small agro-processors to help them find niche markets in the Caribbean, in Guyana to start with and if possible in the US and Canada,” Ali stated.
UncappeD 2018 will feature the ‘Exhibition and Marketplace’ where small and medium-sized agro-processors will showcase and sell their products in one venue and the ‘Food Festival’ where the locally produced products will be used in recipes to create traditional Guyanese cuisine.
