AS the Guyana Shop celebrates its ninth anniversary, the establishment is confident that it has sufficient market knowledge and expertise to provide greater support to agro-processors across the country.

Speaking at a simple ceremony held to commemorate the establishment’s milestone on Wednesday, General Manager of the Guyana Marketing Co-operation (GMC), Teshawna Lall, said that through the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the GMC and, by extension, the Guyana Shop have embarked on an agricultural transformation, placing special emphasis on the promotion of local value-added products.

“Guyana is proud of our reputation of possessing fresh nutritious agricultural produce, but, by way of the Guyana Shop, we now possess a unique opportunity to market the ‘Land of Many Waters’ as a country with nutritious, high-quality value-added agro-processed food, condiments, and snacks,” Lall said during brief remarks.

She added that farmers and entrepreneurs are at the centre of the said transformation plan.
The General Manager noted that the establishment has in excess of 600 different product lines from more than 120 local agro-processors, and despite the challenges that were brought on by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Guyana Shop has seen the addition of more local products on its shelves.

“Despite the pressures of the COVID-19, the Guyana Shop still managed to add 39 new products and 14 new agro-processors in 2021. Also, we saw the addition of 68 OTC products from Twins Manufacturing and New GPC.”

The shop, she added, will continue to be a people-centred entity to ensure that agro-processors are given a space to market themselves and consumers are given the best quality products for a superb shopping experience.

“We were successful in establishing four new Guyana Shop Corners at Cost Cutters, Flamboyant,Tabs Pharmacy and Essential Pharmacy. We are focusing on making customer experience better every day, constantly thinking of new ways to revive the many joys of shopping,” she said, adding: “We remain committed to being a rock for our local agro-processors. We want to encourage everyone to shop smart, buy local.”

Meanwhile, in delivering brief remarks, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, said the Guyana Shop has come a long way in becoming a support system for agro-processors.

“Today, we have a number of these persons and when you look around these shelves in the shop here, you will see hundreds of produce and products that are being produced right here in our country.”

The minister noted that the government will continue to give support to agro-processors to ensure the sector is given the necessary tools to develop into a high income-earning sector and that the government was working to ensure barriers to trade are reduced so that more of Guyana’s products can be exported to the Caribbean and other parts of the world.

The Guyana Shop was established and officially opened in 2012. Its mandate is to house, promote, and build awareness of the vastly growing variety of locally manufactured products.