Six key members of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are now official connoisseurs of the internationally acclaimed award-winning El Dorado Rum of Guyana.
They were presented with official certificates last Thursday at a simple ceremony in the bank’s boardroom by Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) Chairman, Komal Samaroo.
The Executive Directors earned their certificates as a result of their visit to the operations of DDL at Diamond, on Guyana’s East Bank of the Demerara River, during an official visit to Guyana, which is a borrowing member of the bank. While at DDL, the Directors – Eliot Pedrosa, the USA’s Director; Bosco Marti Ascencio, Director for Mexico and the Dominican Republic; Eric Madueno, Director for Canada; Malcolm Geere, Director for the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Croatia and Slovenia; Jose Guilherme Reis, Director for Brazil and Suriname and Ambassador Selwin Hart, Director for the Caribbean – participated in an organoleptic testing exercise of a range of the El Dorado and other brands of Demerara rums distilled, blended and bottled by DDL.
Prior to the organoleptic testing exercise, the Directors, accompanied by IDB representative in Guyana Sophie Makonnen and DDL officials, toured the distillery, warehouses and bottling plant and were particularly impressed with the centuries-old wooden still which is among the stills currently in use at the distillery.
The visitors were also brought up to date on the expansion and diversification plans currently underway at DDL including the proposed solar farm to supply energy to the Diamond Complex which is to benefit from funding from the IDB.
Last week, DDL Chairman Komal Samaroo and Government Affairs Advisor Wesley Kirton were in Washington DC for the Caribbean Legislative Forum on Capitol Hill and an energy meeting at the Bank and were received by five of the six Directors in the office of the US Executive Director.
The Caribbean Director, Selwin Hart, was not present since he was in Trinidad and Tobago for meetings of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
While visiting with the Bank’s directorate, Samaroo took the opportunity to further discuss DDL’s diversification and expansion programmes.
