President reiterates support for small, medium scale businesses -During tour of Global Seafood Distributors

Georgetown, Guyana – (February 8, 2018) President David Granger, today, visited Global Seafood Distributors, a seafood processing and packaging facility, which supplies products in Guyana and the Caribbean. Speaking to the owner, Mrs. Allison Butters-Grant after touring the West Ruimveldt facility, the Head of State reaffirmed Government’s support for small and medium-scale enterprises and said that the company’s operations are, “entirely in keeping with Government’s food security policy”.

The Head of State also told Mrs. Butters Grant, who was accompanied by her husband, Mr. Kerwin Grant, that the current administration will continue to support the development of value added production across the country. “I would like to assure that the Government will work with you to not only make the industry prosper but also to provide cheap and healthy reliable food for our population,” he said.

President Granger has visited a number of medium and small scale enterprises and sees such visits as an ideal opportunity to interface with local entrepreneurs and listen to their concerns and challenges. “This is something that is adding value to Guyanese products and I would like to throw the Government’s weight behind enterprises like these, particularly since they are concerned with food security. It is my belief that we do not make enough use of our fish and we have an obligation, to not only provide food to people on the coastland, but the hinterland as well. So I am very interested in value-added, I am very interested in packaging and preservation,” the President said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Butters-Grant explained that upon her return to Guyana from the United States where she had resided for a number of years, she played around with several business ideas, which, for many reasons, never got off the ground. She recalled that back in 2012 she and her husband wanted to establish a school on the East Bank of Demerara, but that plan also fell through. They eventually settled on the seafood business, an industry to which she was no stranger since her parents were involved in fishing. “I grew up in the industry. I have a great passion for it. I think it’s in my blood,” she said.

With a keen focus on the local market, Mrs. Butters-Grant informed that the company supplies fish to Guyana Gold Fields, the Guyana Defence Force and from Monday, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. They also export fish to the United State, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.

Apart from packaging fresh fish, the company, which employs over 15 persons, is also famous for its boneless and skinless saltfish. This is filleted by staff members at the processing facility and is then placed on racks in a solar drying facility, after which is it packaged. The company’s product line also includes fish nuggets and pre-seasoned, pan-ready fish and Mrs. Butters-Grant also hinted at plans to make fish sausage.