TAMARIND achar, flavoured pepper sauce, and the “Pink Lotus” brand of finger snacks were among a wide range of local products which on Saturday lined stalls on the Avenue outside Courts on Main Street in downtown Georgetown as a number of small agro-processers, displaying their products in an event organized by the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC), called for local bottling facilities in order to better package their products.Seizing every opportunity to get a sale, they readily informed persons about the products they had on display.

Annie Bristol, of Anne’s Products, said she processes a number of products, including achar and green seasoning. Her tamarind-flavoured achar is a hit, thanks to its unique taste, she boasted. Bristol, who markets her products on her own, said she has been in the business for some four years, having started with the production of hot sauces. Two years ago, she started bottling and making improvements to the packaging of her products.

“I only sell in Guyana; I am not doing it internationally as yet,” she confided. She plans to sell her products in the Caribbean, including in Trinidad and Tobago.

Based at Hope/Lowlands on the East Coast of Demerara, she has a staff that assists her to prepare her sauces. She said that one of the major challenges she faces is packaging, mainly getting bottles. She explained that she would normally source bottles from overseas, but the supplier has recently exited that trade.

Marcia Gonsalves, based at Soesdyke, EBD, displayed her products under the Marcia’s Products brand. She said she processes her foods, including cassava bread, cassareep and quinches, while she packages the farine food staple which she ships from Annai in Region Nine. She said she uniquely packages her cassava bread in “toaster sizes”, noting that some of her customers requested the food in that manner.

Gonsalves has been in the field for some four years now, and plans to expand her business in the years ahead.

The “Pink Lotus” brand of tamarind balls, plantain chips, potato chips and a variety of other packaged foods were also being sold at the event. Janet Dhanpaul, from Mahaica, ECD, runs the business, having bought it from someone who had already registered the Pink Lotus brand.

Diana Plowell was busy selling her products to customers when this publication stopped at her stand. Head of the European Union Delegation to Guyana, Ambassador Jernej Videtic, stopped by to purchase some items produced by her Pleasurable Flavours brand.

She said her operation, based in Linden, produces several products which are all unique to the market. She said the list includes hot sauces in four flavours, including cucumber, souree (bilimbie) and papaw. She sees marketing as a work in progress. “For the product that we have, it’s very progressive. Persons have never heard of them”, she said, as she mentioned the sweet pepper relish which was conceptualized after frequent customer advice.

Her operation plans to introduce a number of other products to the market in the months ahead, including jams and ketchup. ”We are having all natural stuff,” Plowell said, noting that bottling is also an issue her operation faces. She said the entity purchases bottles from overseas, and noted that a number of products are awaiting bottles, which are due this week.

This NGMC fair attracted many persons, some of whom noted that it was the first time they have seen locally packaged products on the market.