Local agro-processor, Faye Gilgious-Greaves intends to captivate attendees at next week’s UNCAPPED business exhibition with her unique sweet pepper jelly and pepper stew.
The now-retired teacher and her husband John Greaves are marketing their homemade pepper stew for retail across Guyana and abroad. The couple believe they have unlocked the secret to making the perfect stew and jelly.
They started making the product after an awful experience and were determined to ensure that people could access quality and satisfying products.
John insisted that he could make such products and eventually, they did. Later, their business Jofa Products was launched.
“We bought a product and even though it’s a quality product, apparently it wasn’t done (up) to standards and my husband said to me, ‘I can do something better than that’.
“One day, I came home and the whole kitchen was lit up with the aroma,” Faye recounted.
She further said, “It’s not something that was written in a book. It’s as a result of something that was created by my husband.”
Peppers, vegetables and other ingredients come together to create the pepper stew.
After this concoction found favour, Faye decided to create the sweet pepper jelly. In 2022, Faye decided to embark on her new business journey after her friends and family showed an interest in the product.
Now, as a member of the Guyana Manufacturing Service Association (GMSA), she will debut her product at the upcoming UNCAPPED business exhibition.
She recently returned to Guyana after attending an exhibition in Barbados. This is her first big event locally.
She intends to do as she always does for these events. Prepare her products with the hopes that people enjoy it and purchase it.
Already, she said the response has been phenomenal and it gives her hope that the product will continue being a hit.
Faye has long had an interest in cooking and preparing foods. She said she would make African foods and sell on Emancipation Day and last year she shared samples of her stew and jelly when delivering orders.
“Even when I was in school, when we would do home economics, I would do the practical and go home and sell nonstop even though I wasn’t making a profit.
“To me it was more practising what you’re doing and seeing if it can be sold…it was a sense of fulfillment there,” she said.
Faye added that she wasn’t aware that she was involved in agro processing after she started researching. Now she is approved for safety and has signalled her interest in becoming Made in Guyana certified by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS).
Though her product is not done on a large-scale she has acquired access to the local market through the Guyana Marketing Corporation and Survivial Supermarket at Sheriff Street.
She said that like most small business products, with time and the demand, she will be able to increase the production.
