Coconuts, vision and the Guyana stock market

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

“Our goal is to be the role model for sustainable largescale agriculture not only in Guyana but in the Caribbean.” ~ Jared Kissoon (Chief Operating Officer, Pomeroon Trading)

Pomeroon Trading made history by filing to list its shares on the Guyana Stock Exchange. Even though Guyana has enormous potential for agricultural growth, up until now it has had no agricultural company that was listed on the Stock Exchange. This initial public offering will make the company just one of three companies to successfully join the Guyana Stock Exchange over the last decade.

The company plans to issue an additional 133,333 new shares at a price of $7.50 US per share for any new investors who wish to invest in the company. This is a history-making announcement and with this company on the stock market, it is demonstrating to the Guyanese people that Pomeroon is aligned with the country for the long haul.

Pomeroon Trading is a coconut and tropical fruit grower and processor based in Guyana that exports across the Caribbean and to North America. The company began growing coconuts and tropical fruits in the Pomeroon in 2017, with a vision from day one to build a sustainable agriculture company focused on exports but with a strong social mandate.

The company’s community aspect of its business is the part that it is most proud of. They operate in an area of Guyana with few jobs, yet they employ over 50 workers (with a target of 85% Amerindian and 60% women). Workers are paid on time and fairly.

Pomeroon Trading also runs CSR programs in the region. In short, they built a dining room at a local primary school, run empowerment training sessions for female entrepreneurs and now they are building libraries and computer centers at two local schools.

Canada’s largest Caribbean Newspaper (Toronto Caribbean Newspaper) had the pleasure of speaking with both Duncan Turnbull, one of the Co-founders of Pomeroon Trading and Jared Kissoon the Chief Operating Officer about this record-breaking venture that is taking place in Guyana. Kissoon, who has previous experience in logging and saw-milling, construction project development and sales were recruited last year to head the company’s operations in the South American Country.

When asked about the company’s vision for the next five years, Kissoon replied, “Our plan is to expand throughout Guyana and possibly the Caribbean region wherever the assets are. Things are not what they used to be when most of you left in the 70s and 80s, and the scale to which we are doing our operations is very different to most of the agribusiness in Guyana and I mean different for the good.”

Turnbull had very encouraging words for folks wanting to come aboard as well, he said,  “Along with investors, we also want to attract normal everyday people from the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world, who want to share in the success of companies operating in the Caribbean. I think it is a shame that so many of the companies that operate in that bit of the world are listed in Toronto, London and New York away from the region where it is more difficult for investors to invest. We are trying to change that by rejuvenating the Guyanese Stock Exchange and we are delighted to welcome other investors to share in this journey with us.”

Turnbull was asked how the mom and pop farmers factor in with his big company, and he replied, “The reality is, Guyana used to have 80,000 acres of coconut land all run by small mom and pop farmers, but over time farming became more and more competitive and required more finance to run. We think that we play an important role in stimulating the coconut industry for all Guyanese farmers, so we would like the 80,000 acres to be grown again by small farmers but underpinned by investments from abroad like ours.”

When asked if he had any advice for like-minded folks Kisoon said, “You can come and see what we are doing then, you have two choices, either come on board and join our team or you can emulate and we are happy to go either way.”