Bridgetown.
Executive Director of the Barbados Manufacturers Association, Bobbi McKay, has implored local manufacturers to support each other whether it is in the purchasing of uniforms or general supplies.
Speaking at the launch of the annual BMEX trade fair at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St Michael, McKay said:
"We all need to walk the talk of buying local. What I find highly disturbing however, is the emerging culture with former manufacturers who are now importers suffering from amnesia because they no longer need reciprocal support…They turn a blind eye on their colleagues and I find this downright unconscionable, and for many years we have been promoting the importance of buying local and to this end many of these previous manufacturers would have benefitted from those efforts.
"Now that they are no longer within the sector they choose to cut corners and import goods that they once reduced, which are still being produced here, but they are going to get a bigger profit margin,"she added.
During the official opening, special awards were made to Marshall Oran, for his contribution to Entrepreneurship, and to Barton Greene for his contribution to Industry. Charlie Ray was given a posthumous award for his contribution to the Manufacturing Community.
