Black Immigrant Daily News

PriceSmart, the operator of 50 wholesale cubs in the Caribbean and Latin America, says its membership base is at an all-time high, with over 1.75 million accounts in its third quarter.

The new record follows the April 2022 opening of its Portmore club in St Catherine, Jamaica — PriceSmart’s second on the island.

PriceSmart reported that its net merchandise sales grew to almost US$1 billion in the third quarter ending May 2022 of its fiscal year, up 12.8 per cent over the comparative period last year.

PriceSmart CEO Sherry Bahrambeygui said the sales performance improved even after taking into account a negative currency impact of 2.2 per cent.

Comparable net merchandise sales for the 47 warehouse clubs that have been open for greater than 13 1/2 calendar months increased 12.8 per cent for the 13-week period ended May 29, 2022, compared to the comparable period of the prior year.

Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted comparable net merchandise sales negatively by $18.6 million or 2.2% versus the same period in the prior year.

Total revenues for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022 increased 15.1 per cent to $1.03 billion compared to $895.3 million in the comparable period of the prior year.

Bahrambeygui noted, however, that like many other retailers, PriceSmart has not been spared the impact of global supply chain disruption and abrupt shifts in consumer demands.

Despite making strategic investments in inventory to remain in stock and capture higher levels of sales, the CEO said supply-chain issues have disrupted the flow of inventory.

She also noted that inflation has influenced consumer behaviour by shifting the demand away from discretionary and toward more essential items.

“As a result, we have been experiencing excess inventory, primarily in the area of hardlines,” she said.

Hardlines refer to non-personal items such as sporting equipment, appliances or electronics.

“Our hardlines and other non-food categories are characterized by a higher penetration of imported items that tend to correlate with discretionary spending, the CEO explained.

To this end, PriceSmart said it has taken decisive action to swiftly sell through excess inventory and quickly rebalance its inventory mix as it has experienced higher than normal markdowns.

“Our plan is to handle this quickly and efficiently in order to be well-positioned for the holiday season.”

PriceSmart said it is likely to see some margin pressure in the fourth quarter but expects it will be far less than the third quarter.

“We see this as a point in time. We have gained many new important insights. We expect soon to return to our healthy, historical margin structures.”

In the meantime, Bahrambeygui said PriceSmart remains focused on its plan to drive growth through expansion of its global real estate footprint, increasing the value of the membership, and driving incremental sales through PriceSmart.com and through the creation of additional technology capabilities.

PriceSmart is also expanding in the region and has purchased land to open its third warehouse club in El Salvador.

The company had 50 warehouse clubs in operation as of May 31, 2022, compared to 47 warehouse clubs in operation as of May 31, 2021.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Police visit the St Dominic’s Children’s Home on Tuesday. – Roger Jacob

FOR the second consecutive day police visited St Dominic’s Children’s Home as investigations into allegations of abuse at children’s homes continue.

After their first visit St Dominic’s in Belmont on Tuesday, officers assigned to the Child Protection Unit left with documents pertaining to the staff, dating back some 25 years.

Officers spent about four hours at the facility interviewing a current senior member of staff who was a nun when victims attended the institution. Other remaining staff from that period were also interviewed.

Police also photographed areas where the abuse allegedly took place.

They returned on Wednesday with a locksmith to gain access to a file cabinet and left with more documents. Police said they stayed for about three hours at the institution on that occasion.

Simultaneously, another group of officers visited the St Mary’s Children’s Home in Tacarigua. This was the second time that officers visited the institution. The first time was last week, when three officers visited and interviewed staff who would have been around 25 years ago. On Wednesday, one officer returned and interviewed one member of staff and promised to return to interview two others.

While there, the officer was informed about two girls who ran away some weeks ago. One returned and then absconded shortly after. A mobile medical centre was brought to the Tacarigua facility and some of the children were given free medical attention.

The police investigation started in May after the Prime Minister asked acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob to locate a 25-year-old government sanctioned report into children’s homes that alleged abuse of all kinds.

A nine-member team led by Dr Robert Sabga, looked into the affairs of children’s homes and found reports of rampant sexual, physical and emotional abuse where at least 40 children were alleged victims. The report, which was completed in 1997, remained private until earlier this year when Sabga spoke out about it.

Head of the Special Victims Department Supt Claire Guy-Alleyne, in May, called on victims to come forward and assist police with the investigation after Dr Rowley insisted that Jacob not only located the the Sabga report but act on it. Since then several people have stepped forward to assist police saying they were victims.

A second report into children’s homes, spearheaded by retired Justice Judith Jones was laid in Parliament on April 29. That report also highlighted abuse at children’s homes.

Police said they were yet to begin investigating reports of abuse stemming from Jones’ report given the volume of work that the Sabga report alone generated.

The Roman Catholic Church which controls 12 children’s homes and nurseries are assisting police as two of its institutions were named in Jones’ report, namely St Jude’s and St Dominic’s. After the Jones’ report was laid in Parliament, Archbishop Jason Gordon ordered an investigation into the allegations of child abuse at homes run by his church.

On Wednesday, Fr Robert Christo, the church’s Vicar for Communications told Newsday that the church is co-operating with police in their investigations.

Senior police officers investigating the allegations said everyone was co-operating well with the police.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

As Guyana’s largest rice export market – the European Union (EU) – is clamping down on the use of pesticides on its food imports, local authorities are working to ensure that the product meets updated international standards.

This was expressed by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) during a recent conference where it was noted that the EU is tightening legislation on safety limits of pesticide residue in rice and other imported foods.

GRDB General Manager Badrie Persaud explained that Guyana has over the years, recorded increases in the amount of rice exported to Europe.

He said for the halfway mark of this year, 52% of the country’s exported rice went to the EU. Of the entirety of last year’s rice exports, 48% went to the EU.

But with the EU now clamping down on food safety, he noted that local authorities must be concerned.

In fact, he highlighted that many European countries have stopped importing rice and other products after discovering that it does not meet their safety standards.

It was explained that the EU has been focusing on a specific pesticide used by rice farmers in Guyana called imidacloprid which is used to control one of the most prevalent pests among local rice farms, commonly called the paddy bug.

It was noted that the overuse of imidacloprid and other similar chemicals can make produce unsafe for human consumption and can also be harmful to the biodiversity of the environment.

To prevent any such instance from happening and to keep country’s major export market intact, the GRDB in collaboration with the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and other relevant agencies, are working to find other means of dealing with these prevalent and other types pests, and to ensure that safe, consumable rice that meets the EU’s standards.

Dr. Rajendra Persaud, a member of the GRDB’s Plant Pathology Department, who has already done studies on imidacloprid and the paddy bug, said they will be taking strategic measures to ensure to that the rice exported is safe.

“On the paddy bug and its management in Guyana, with our overall objective to study the paddy bug and to develop strategies that effectively reduces its economic impact on rice cultivation, we start off that by implementing our national monitoring and surveillance strategy which is currently being conducted throughout the rice growing regions with the help of our extension arm, working along with the farmers, we are evaluating new insecticides. We are also looking at the option of some bio pesticides,” he said.

As part of these strategic measure, the GRDB has already start the construction of a Bio Control Lab and will also be conducting further studies.

It was reported in 2019 that the GRDB received assistance from its international partner, the Latin-American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR), to tackle the infestation of paddy bugs which has been affecting farmers in all the rice-producing regions.

Farmers, however, were not accepting the suggestions being put forward by the team of experts which comprised of entomologist and researcher, Dr Ed Pulver along with agricultural engineer Santiago Jaramillo Cardona.

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