– seeking niche market for acai berry wine, garlic-flavoured cassava biscuits

By Ravena Gildharie
Three years ago, Vanessa Lowe, a farmer and midwife of New Haven, Siriki in the Upper Pomeroon River attended a workshop and met another participant who told her about the production of flavoured wine and juice using acai berry, which is harvested from the locally-known ‘manicole’ palm.

“I had never heard about acai berry wine before so I said I had to try this for myself. At that time, I didn’t know how nutritious it was,” Lowe recalled. She proceeded with her experiment, soaked several pounds of the berry to make the wine.
She used some of the fresh fruits to make juice. When it was ready for consumption, she encouraged her family members and fellow villagers to join in sampling the drink. Around the same time, a Ministry of Agriculture team visited the community and Lowe introduced the officials to her newly-discovered produces.

“They tasted and they said they liked it very much, and so I was encouraged to further develop the idea. I did some research and discovered the many health benefits of the acai berry,” Lowe said. Acai berry has been known for centuries as a healing, immune-stimulating, energy-boosting fruit. It is believed that the fruit promotes heart and skin health, helps digestion, boost the immune system, improve mental function and aids weight loss among others.

Today, Lowe’s acai berry wine is publicly available bottled, labelled and branded through the Women Agro-Processors Development Network (WADNet), which aided the product’s expansion and promotion. WADNet comprises several groups of small-scale agro-processors from various rural and indigenous communities. The Network’s agenda is spearheaded by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and helps the agro-processors in various ways.

Marketing acai berry wine, juice
Through WADNet, Lowe received agro-processing and business management training. She got financial assistance to develop packaging and labelling of her produces and the Network is still trying to secure markets for the acai berry wine and juice.
Currently, Lowe sells her produces based on demand in her community and the Pomeroon River. Her items can be found too at WADNet’s Office located in IICA’s Building on Brickdam, Georgetown. The agro-processor also showcased and sold her produces at exhibitions in which WADNet has participated.

Last year, Lowe established a processing facility at her home where she produces the acai berry wine as well as cherry wine and sorrel drink. On her farm, she grows pineapples, passion fruits, sorrel, coconuts and eddoes. In addition to her own harvest, Lowe sources fruits from nearby farmers. They provide her with all of the fresh acai berries for which she pays about $30 per pound. She usually purchases about 200 pounds twice per month.
At her facility, she washes the berries and soak it in containers for at least two weeks, afterwards which she strains it and leave the extracted juice to remain for several months to make the wine. For the fresh juice, she uses a special mill to separate the flesh of the berries from the seeds. The mill, Lowe acquired through the previous Rural Enterprise Agricultural Development (READ) Project.

“I don’t add any sugar or preservatives to my juice drink. It is organic. I just add water and bottle it,” Lowe boasted. The product has a shelf-life for about one year once it is kept refrigerated. The wine is sold in recycled 750 ml bottles at a cost of $2000 each.
Lowe is the only person known to date in Guyana who processes the acai berry wine and juice. She plans to produce a video to showcase the processing of the acai berry wine and juice from the first to last stages.

Garlic flavoured cassava biscuits
Meanwhile at Tapakuma Mission, also in Region Two, a group of women is pioneering the production of cassava biscuits flavoured with garlic and hot pepper. The products are branded by the Rising Sun Products Enterprise and are currently available at the Guyana Shop in Georgetown and at IICA’s Office. The group sell too from the community’s cassava factory.
Treasurer Vanessa Wong explained that the villagers were growing and processing cassava for a long time and the factory had changed several hands of management over the years until it grew defunct. Then in 2014 under leadership of Toshao Doreen Jacobis, the factory was renovated under the READ Project. The farmers at the time were involved in a massive cassava cultivation programme and efforts were focused on seeking markets.

A group of initially five women including Wong subsequently formed the Rising Sun Products Enterprise and took control of the factory. With assistance from WADNet, the group advanced their cassava processing ventures focusing primarily on the garlic-flavoured and spicy-flavoured cassava biscuits.
“We got a lot of help from WADNet and we are very grateful for their support. They helped us with finance to upgrade our labels and packaging, got us registered as a business, helped our members to get food handler’s certificates and provided training on various topics. They have also helped us to get markets…they got us to where we are today,” Wong expressed.

She noted too that the Network allows the women to exhibit their products at various events in Essequibo and Georgetown. “They also have officials checking on us every month so we know we have their continued support,” Wong outlined.
Currently, the women produce twice per month at the factory, processing about 500 pounds of cassava per week during each cycle. They provide a steady market for the local farmers.

Supporting local farmers
“We buy from about 20 farmers in the community. We try to rotate the purchase too to ensure that all of the farmers benefit from our processing activities. Also, there is the CDP Project where farmers planted 10 acres of cassava and 10 acres of peanuts, so we buy from that farm too, which we call the community’s farm,” Wong related.
The group still produce the regular cassava bread, cassareep and cassava ‘quinches,’ a cassava meal sandwich that contains flavoured processed coconut.

“The ‘quinches’ product is doing well so far because we have noticed that more people who know about it, like to eat it and are buying it more than the other cassava products,” Wong indicated. Two weeks ago, the women included a batch of the ‘quinches’ in their shipment to the Guyana Shop to test the market availability for this product. The group had been supplying the Shop once per month but is now expanding production to stock more frequently based on growing demand.

According to Wong, the villagers have been producing the garlic-flavoured and spicy-flavoured biscuits for a number of years. The process involves integrating grated garlic and hot pepper to the cassava meal before it is baked and dried. The factory is equipped with a solar dryer that the women uses to make their cassava biscuits. The biscuits are cut in squares, packaged and labelled.
Wong said she hasn’t met or heard about any other groups or individual producing the flavoured cassava biscuits.