ANSA McAL agrees to buy, distribute Guyanese products in Caribbean

Last Updated on Friday, 17 October 2025, 21:38 by Writer

The Trinidad-headquartered ANSA McAL Group of Companies on Friday decided to purchase and sell Guyanese products in its chain of supermarkets across the Caribbean, and develop sporting facilities at the more than US$50 million mall to be constructed at Chateau Margot, East Coast Demerara.

Chief Executive Officer of the ANSA McAL Group, Anthony Sabga II instructed his local Managing Director Troy Cadogan to “organise a few containers of Guyanese-made goods and immediately ship it to our supermarkets.”

Mr Sabga made the on-the-spot decision in response to requests by President Irfaan Ali in his address at the sod-turning session at the 10-acre plot of land where the historic more-than-100-year-old Chateau Margot chimney is located. Saying that the Guyanese leader “speaks like a businessman with a huge, huge ambition,” Mr Sabga said he was impressed by his “phenomenal ambition” to work with the business community for the benefit of Guyanese. “I have not heard the level of inspiration where a government wants to work in collaboration with businesses to grow the fortunes of the country for everybody,” he said.

The mall is expected to be constructed over the next two years by a Chinese company which has already commenced site preparations, officials said.

In response to the President’s recommendation that an area of the complex be set aside for volleyball, basketball and FIFA mini-pitch, Mr Sabga suggested that a joint company-government team develop a farmers’ market, volleyball and basketball court, and maybe booths and stalls for Indigenous Peoples to showcase their products.

Dr Ali, in his address prior to Mr Sabga’s decision, asked ANSA McAL, with its “greatest footprint” to work with the New Guyana Marketing Corporation to distribute processed agriculture products and produce in its supermarkets. “Not to come back with all the barriers that would not allow you to do it but to come back with a clear strategy as to how our small farmers can say ‘ANSA McAL means something to me’,” he said.

Saying that he was disappointed whenever Guyanese products are not on Caribbean shelves, the President recommended that supplies in the first instance be consolidated into one shipping container. “Let the small man get a chance to breathe and grow and build,” he said.

He challenged the company to facilitate the trade in Guyanese goods because Guyana has made its fair share of contribution to the Caribbean and, in return, its continued development would be for the region’s benefit. “You must remove those barriers in Trinidad and Tobago that keep our products out of your shelves and I’m passionate about this,” he said.

In addition to government’s efforts to incentivise a number of its products such as corn, soya, meat, red beans and black eye, he said Guyana must be assisted to position its products in the regional market. “We don’t want Guyana to be looked at only as a retail centre. That is not the Guyana we want to build…We want investment in the value chain. We want value creation,” he said, adding that the major distributors must be part of the plan. He cautioned that if Guyana does not get the support from the Caribbean, “we’ll have to build the infrastructure ourselves” in collaboration with the Guyanese private sector and Brazil.

While the President asked ANSA McAL to use Guyanese honey in its value-creation, Trinidad and Tobago is yet to lift its ban on honey from Guyana despite repeated promises by successive governments of that twin-island nation after discussions at the level of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).