Regional standards play a crucial role in harmonising regulations and product specifications across CARICOM countries, thereby facilitating easier trade among businesses without encountering technical barriers. Through the Caricom Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), member states are given the opportunity to contribute to the drafting of these standards, ensuring the development of the most comprehensive documents.
The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has, over the years, contributed to the development of many regional standards, some of which were later adopted as National Standards. In keeping with its responsibilities as a National Standards Body (NSB), the GNBS is currently inviting stakeholders to attend the Public Consultation Session on two Draft CARICOM Standards. These are the DCRS 82: 202X – Cocoa Bean Quality- Sampling Requirements and the DCRS 83: 202X – Cocoa Bean Quality – Specifications.
The “DCRS 82:202X, Cocoa bean quality – Sampling requirements” covers the selection and preparation of samples in a way that accurately reflects the overall quality and characteristics of the entire bean lot, ensuring that subsequent quality assessments and analyses are reliable and meaningful. This standard aims to contribute to the reduction of challenges, including sampling bias and systematic errors, associated with obtaining a representative sample from cocoa bean lots for quality assessment. It is intended for use by producers, exporters, laboratories, and regulators.
Meanwhile, the “DCRS 83:202X, Cocoa Bean Quality – Specifications” was developed to contribute to the improvement of the quality of regionally produced cocoa beans. This standard is intended to support the drive towards regional quality improvement for cocoa produced by CARICOM Member States. It is designed for use by producers, laboratories, quality assessors, processors and regulators.
The draft documents are available on the GNBS’ website (gnbsgy.org – Standardisation – Standards for Public Comments). On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at 10:00h, the GNBS will host a hybrid Public Consultation Session to gather feedback from interested stakeholders, including farmers, retailers, chocolatiers, and others.
Participants can attend in person at the GNBS Head Office, National Exhibition Centre, Sophia, Georgetown, or online using the Microsoft Teams platform (Meeting ID: 2407692876568, Passcode: Pp2a8gQ9). Written comments can also be submitted to the GNBS using the Comments Sheet on the website or via email at public.comments@gnbsgy.org before Friday, July 11, 2025.
Recognising that National Standards affect retailers, manufacturers, as well as consumers, feedback from the public is crucial to the standard development process. The GNBS encourages all stakeholders to contribute to the development of the draft standards since the intention is for them to be adopted as National Standards.
So far in 2025, the Bureau has assisted in the development of the Regional Standard for Compost, which will also be adopted as a National Standard.
Over the years, the GNBS has also adopted various Regional Standards to help local stakeholders meet regional requirements for numerous products and services. Some of the standards that were adopted include the CRS 39:2022 – Pesticides Labelling – Requirements, and CRS 76:2023 – Hand Sanitisers – Alcohol-based Hand Sanitisers – Specifications. Several standards for fresh agricultural produce were adopted by the GNBS and other Member States to facilitate trade in the agricultural sector across the region, along with regional standards covering ‘Sustainable tourism’.
The GNBS is proud to play its part in the development of regional standards and encourages Guyanese to participate in this process by attending public consultation sessions and submitting public comments to the Bureau’s Standardisation Department. For further information on these and other standards, please contact the GNBS at telephone numbers 219-0064 or 219-0065 or WhatsApp us at 692-4627.
