Dominant Nadal reaches third round with easy victory
MELBOURNE, (Reuters) - Rafa Nadal dispelled any remaining doubts over his fitness with a commanding 6-1 6-4 6-2 win against American qualifier Michael Mmoh yesterday to march into the Australian Open third round and stay on track for a record 21st Grand Slam title.
The second seed did not play a match in Spain’s ATP Cup campaign last week with a back problem and following his opening win in Melbourne he had said the injury was still bothering him.
Nadal showed no sign of discomfort, however, against the 177th-ranked American under the closed roof of the Rod Laver Arena and peppered the blue court with winners from both forehand and backhand sides as Mmoh watched on helplessly.
The 2009 Melbourne Park winner, who is tied with Roger Federer at 20 Grand Slam singles titles, will next meet either Briton Cameron Norrie or Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin.
Notwithstanding the challenges occasioned by the advent of COVID-19 during much of 2020, the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) is reporting an increase in the volume of its traditional agricultural exports with coconuts, pumpkin, watermelon, heart of palm, and eddo, leading the way.
A release from the state-run agency which has been playing a pivotal support role in the agricultural sector, including the agroprocessing sector, said that during last year the country recorded a 9% increase in the export of non-traditional agricultural commodities between January and December compared with exports in 2019, the constraints arising from the still-raging pandemic notwithstanding.
Last year a total of 9,907 metric tonnes of non-traditional agricultural produce valued at $2.5 billion (US$12 million) was exported. This increase was due primarily to a 20% (8217 metric tonnes) and 44% (419 metric tonnes) increase in the export of dried coconuts and coconut water, respectively.
Meanwhile, in keeping with its sobriquet as the bread basket of the Caribbean, the GMC recorded a 110% (2,194 metric tonnes) increase in exports to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. Antigua, Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, were Guyana’s largest regional exports in 2010.
With airline travel hobbled by COVID-19-related restrictions during much of last year, 99% (9805 metric tonnes) of the country’s agricultural exports were transported by sea, representing a 14% increase in shipped produce, compared to the year 2019. A modest 102 metric tonnes of non-traditional agricultural commodities, representing 1% of such exports were exported via air in 2020. This represents an 82% decline in exports via air, the result of the temporary cessation of flights by Caribbean Airlines in 2020 due to the forced closure of the country’s international airports in compliance with protocols associated with airline travel put in place to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The GMC said in its release that restrictions in the movement of cargo occasioned by the pandemic resulted in sharp declines in the export of mango, bora, boulanger, pineapple, eddo, and peppers last year, compared
with 2019. Most of these commodities are exported mainly to Canada and the USA. Increases in the export of coconut water, pepper sauce, achar, cassareep, and preserved fruit, were also recorded last year.
The release said that the Corporation “will continue to create linkages between buyers and sellers of non-agricultural commodities” and to make possible “the ongoing facilitation of the use of the Corporation’s Packaging Facilities.”
The changing face of Guyana as a place to do business is continually being manifested in the types of goods and services offered by providers that are moving to ‘put down roots’ here. With oil & gasrelated investments continually swelling the investor ranks, an increasing number of what can be termed strategic support services are gravitating towards this previously largely ignored part of South America. Where costly investments continue to become attracted to what is now a swiftly unfolding multi-billion dollar oil & gas industry, an eagle-eyed international security sector has become aware of what has become, arguably, one of the more potentially lucrative security markets in the developing world.
While there is evidence that our local security service providers have been upping their own game both through training and investment in upgraded security equipment, the year 2021 has witnessed the launch of Tactical Combat Supplies Guyana
Limited (TCS), a security service that looks directly to the high end of the sector.
The company’s Corporate Sales Manager, Nigel Collymore, who speaks for the management of TCS told Stabroek Business that while it may appear that the recent ‘opening’ of TCS suggests that it was intended to coincide with the rising level of oil & gas-related overseas investor interest in Guyana, what exists today is the fruition of what had been “a work in progress.” For several years TCS has been steadily seeking to shape its services here to meet what it perceives to be the country’s needs, simultaneously immersing itself in engaging the authorities on the thicket of requirements necessary to become licensed to be a part of the security sector, and sitting down with the private sector, one of its key target markets.
What TCS seeks to do, Collymore explained, is to raise the security ‘bar’ here, helping to elevate the
sector from what, in times past, had been perceived as the ‘night watchman’ level, to a stage where it can respond adequately to the range of security requirements that have become necessary at this stage of the country’s development. “We believe that there is a need not just for enhanced training but for the availability of equipment that matches the level of service that we seek to provide,” Collymore says.
What is a decidedly modest Alexander Street, Kitty storefront masks an interior that displays a range of security-related apparel and accoutrements almost certainly not to be found on display in any other commercial premises around the country. Firearms are not on display here but the company’s service also extends into the provision of those.
To add to the bewildering array of security-related apparel, protective gear, and other accoutrements available inside the store, TCS has brought to Guyana a surveillance vehicle equipped with what is perhaps best described as an operations room from which security-related observation can be done. More of these, the company says, will be imported to help raise the local security service bar.
Setting aside its substantive business interest, TCS’s showroom also stocks hunting and camping gear. The store, however, is crammed with a range of low-intensity security equipment. The company’s Personnel and ‘K-9 Training are also run by Joanne Van Cooten, the ‘other half’ of the TCS partnership. Now ‘up and running’, TCS says that it is now focused on selling a stepped up level of security to consumers. And in this regard the company has already made its presence felt through social media with its daily Facebook and Instagram platforms.
That being said, Collymore told Stabroek Business that the bewildering array of equipment which TCS is offering does not allow the company to lose sight of the fact that above everything else it seeks to deliver a standard that will not just enhance the local comfort level but help to send a signal to a curious international community that the country, in those respects that particularly matter, is ready to do business.
Notes
1 - Interim Results
2 - Prospective Dividends
3 - Shows year-end EPS but Interim
Dividend
4 - Shows Interim EPS but year-end
Dividend
EPS: earnings per share for 12 months period to the date the latest financials have been prepared. These include:
2016 - Final results for CJL and PHI.
2019 - Final Results for BTI, HCL and DTC.
2020 - Interim Results for CCI, DDL,
GSI, JPS, RDL and SPL.
2020 - Final Results for DIH, CBI,
DBL and RBL.
As such, some of these EPS calculations are based on un-audited figures.
P/E Ratio: Price/Earnings Ratio = Last Trade Price/EPS
Dividend yield = Dividends paid in the last 12 months/last trade price.
Even as Guyana continues to cast worried glances over its shoulder as the novel coronavirus continues to rage, evidence continues to surface of the emergence of opportunistic business initiatives across the country.
Pheadra Williams is a first-time agro-processor whose love for fresh natural ginger-laced juice was being countered by the monotony of having to grate ginger before being able to apply it to her pursuits. That was the genesis of an initiative that gave birth to cold-pressing ginger juice which Pheadra says has ‘caught on’ with local consumers.
The development of the product, she says, began with its ‘manufacture’ and in the first instance being consumed in her own home and gifted as giveaways to friends.
The November 2020 Almond Street Farmers’ Market may have been the catalyst for a commercial venture that has graduated through the ranks of what one might call patronage buying to a present condition in which her product has won widespread acceptance in many of the country’s high profile food outlets.
Consistency of sales since the Almond Street experience has meant that customers have ‘graduated’ from one-time triers to, hopefully, lifetime buyers. Among the local outlets that display her product are Massy, the GMC’s Guyana Shop, Bounty Supermarkets, N&S Mattai, Cos Cutters, and AT Farm on the East Bank Demerara, among others. The graduation has swelled her admittedly still-limited market to a point that now extends beyond local patronage to the larger, more lucrative markets.
Setting aside the ‘novelty’ of her products, Pheadra believes that her careful attention to packaging and labelling has helped create market access.
If the popularisation of ginger may have come about largely on account of the advent of COVID-19, Pheadra has no wish for the retention of the product’s marketability to be dependent on the persistence of the pandemic. She is seeking to hone a marketing strategy that will cause the product to long outlast COVID-19. “It is a multi-faceted product that has all sorts of possibilities, she says. Unsurprisingly, she is already contemplating other ginger products.
These days, having secured a foothold on the Guyana market, Pheadra’s thoughts have shifted to the overseas market. Relatives and friends have already done their bit to help the product become known beyond the country’s shores.
Pheadra makes no secret of her pride over the fact that her enterprise has opened up an opportunity for ginger growers in Region One from whence she receives her supplies. She points out that she has persisted in her patronage of farmers in that region, the challenges associated from moving product from the interior to the coast, notwithstanding.
Growth is a constant preoccupation. There are plans in the pipeline for the creation of a factory and thoughts of a marketing blitz that seeks to significantly raise the bar insofar as public attention is concerned.
Pheadra Williams makes no secret of the fact that she has something to shout about.
Pheadra can be reached at e-mail: nextraventures@gmail.com, webpage: https://www.facebook.com/ OrganiPure and telephone 662-2010.