–says Chief Executive Officer

THE Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will be aiming for product development through proper branding using Geographical Indication (GI), says Chief Executive Officer Errol

Hanoman.
He was at the time speaking at the conclusion of a two-day conference on Friday, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the theme: “Enhancing market access and promoting certification for quality origin products in Guyana.”

“With the registration of Demerara Molasses name, the nature of molasses sales should change, since a brand is now created and a positive perception will soon be developed….The market has been tested and we see the potential and opportunities that remained untapped, any effort at registration of Demerara Sugar as a GI must augment these gains and charter [sic] a new highway for the corporation to carve a greater niche in the international scene for products,” Hanoman said.

He explained that the workshop and project will build on GuySuCo’s work to formulate an effective strategy to realise the gains from the GI registration of “Demerara”.

Managing-Director of Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), Komal Samaroo, said the company will also benefit from the GI registration as Demerara rums have a different quality, recognition and heritage attributable to its geographic origin.
He explained that DDL has a premium rum collection because of its profile, which is acknowledged through blind-tasting of the rum.
“The aging process is the key to the premiumisation of the rum category and that is why we have created a portfolio of aged rum,” the DDL chief said.
He said DDL has actually trade-marked “Demerara” in several countries, but there are markets where the name Demerara was being used for “all sorts of rum.”

“So I believe the abuse of the name and the practice of some producers to ride on the reputation of others will not be tolerated under the GI registration, which offers the protection against that sort of malpractice,” the managing-director said.
According to the Master Distiller, Shaun Caleb, DDL is not only known as producer of the finest rums, but also as a preserver of Guyana’s history and heritage.
He said that rum, much like sugar, is central to the origin of Guyanese as a people.
Caleb, who attended Princeton University as a DDL Cadet and apprentice to the late Master Distiller, George Robinson, told the gathering that during the 1670s to the 1780s, every sugar plantation in Guyana had at its disposal, a small distillery which consumed the molasses by-product from the sugarcane and converted it into alcohol/ rum.

The Commercial Registry has received three applications for the registration of the name Demerara as a Geographical Indication (GI). The three applications are for Demerara Sugar, Demerara Molasses and Demerara Rum.
GIs are names and other designations associated with quality products coming from specific places, where the geographical origin of the products give them specific qualities, characteristics and reputations.

Unlike trademarks, a producer cannot take the name, if production is no longer done in the country.
The conference sought to raise awareness among key stakeholders and establish the foundation for the development of legal protection of geographical traditional names for quality products from Guyana.