B.B.B. names Entrepreneur of the Year

From its inception, the Belize Business Bureau has positioned itself as the champion of local manufacturers. Today, in announcing the award of its Entrepreneur of the Year for 1999, the B.B.B. has remained true to that reputation. This year’s winner is Omar Gongora. His company, Chemical Specialties of Belize, located on New Road in Belize City, uses a local product – citrus oil – to produce a full line of environmentally friendly cleaners.

Omar Gongora, Entrepreneur of the Year

“For the past 50 years, when the citrus industry started in Belize at Pomona, now really nobody come with this idea, to get this by-product turn it into a powerful degree for cleaner.”

“First I started to experiment with a fragrance, using the citrus oil. And after several months I find out that it had a powerful strain in degrees and that’s when we started to do more feasibility studies on it, until we bring it to the market.”

Stewart Krohn, Reporting

“Can a business like this generate some pretty good income for you?”

Omar Gongora

“Well, at present we are going slowly, but what we try to do right now, is see if we can export this product because it is a very good product. So we are trying to penetrate the Caribbean. We already sent two drums to Chetumal, Mexico so they are testing it there in Cancun and Chetumal.”

Gongora is now looking for export markets in the Caribbean and Mexico. The Business Bureau has also announced that Bridget Cullerton, Chief Executive of the Citrus Growers Association, is the recipient of its annual “Dr. Marla Holder Award”. The award honours the year’s outstanding Belizean woman in business and community development.