New chips company eyes local & export markets, offering ready business to farmers

With the newly-launched product, from left, are: Caribe Snackz COO Dwayne Wade, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission Paul Cheong, Caribe Snackz Head Chief Samsair, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha and Sheik Moeen Ul Hack (Photo: DPI/ April 14, 2023)

To do so, Caribe Snackz has employed 25 people and has indirect linkages with many more including the farmers who supply the plantain and cassava needed to make the chips.

And once local and regional markets consume and demand the products as expected, Samsair said the company will expand distribution, potentially exporting Guyanese-made chips to markets in North America and Europe.

“…We will scale up significantly as we penetrate more markets,” Samsair promised those gathered at the project’s launch.

The setup inside the GMC Parika facility (Photo: DPI/ April 14, 2023)

Samsair is also the local head of the world-renowned real estate firm, Century 21. And he said the decision to invest in this business stemmed from a diaspora investment call made by Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali.

Aside from this chips venture, the company’s Chief Operation Officer, Dwayne Wade said Caribe Snackz will be more than a manufacturer of plantain and cassava chips. The goal, he said, is to transform the leased-facility, at least in part, to a snack manufacturing factory.

And he believes this transformation can happen before the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha welcomed the investments, stating that such ventures are exactly what the government is encouraging and wants to support.

He was optimistic that Caribe Snackz would generate more employment for farmers in the East Bank Essequibo community and boost the local economy.