Pan manufacturing: The forex answer

Pan shines as a beacon in Trinidad and Tobago’s forex search. The Musical Instruments of Trinidad and Tobago Company Ltd (MITTCO) director of sales and business development Akua Leith thinks pan could bring a constant flow of forex to this country’s shores.

There was a visual example when Newsday covered the third MITTCO Open Day on August 29 at Diamond Vale Business Park, Diego Martin.

The company was preparing an order for Grenada when it gave the first of four tours to Newsday and five other people including two young pannists.

The tour took participants through the different stages of pan construction as well as some of the innovations used including the grooving plank. South tuner Oliver Hospedales invented the instrument.

The tour showed new colours and styles of pans including a gold 24-carat tenor.

From the raw material, to the depths required to craft the different kinds of pans, to the grooving process, tuning, heating and engraving, participants were shown – step-by-step – what it takes to form the national instrument.

Leith and his team believes this is just a sliver of what is possible with pan manufacturing.

He said MITTCO was launched on August 11, 2022 and World Steelpan Day has become a huge event on the local and global calendar.

He said Desiree Mayers came to him and suggested that they create a MITTCO Day to sustain the momentum created by World Steelpan Day.

So August 29 is the day designated for the celebration of MITTCO’s birth on August 11.

Leith said MITTCO has been in operation for three years and had built significant infrastructure to support the growth of the pan manufacturing industry.

“Come speak with us, we are open for those conversations. I think we are ripe to do what they want to do. Rather than reinventing the wheel.

“We are ready to take on orders, to take on countries in delivering a product and collaborating is key…,” he said in relation to the government’s plans to expand the pan manufacturing industry.

Leith said the Grenadian government had ordered seven ensembles to start building pans in schools and communities.

“You see our neighbouring islands taking the instrument very seriously. We, with the same craftsmen and women that we have, are able to do these types of things,” Leith said.

He said MITTCO was fortunate to have people who have been in the industry for more than 25 years.

Leith said although the raw materials are imported for Japan, it was just that, the raw material.

No where in TT sold oil drums, he said.

“Of course, everyone has the desire for everything to be totally local but you have to take the totally-local industry seriously,” he said.

Infrastructure should be placed around chroming, drums and transport.

“We as an industry do not have that support. In that sense, we have to find alternatives. We can get quality products from Japan, we can quality products from Mexico, States, wherever we get quality product that is where we will go.

“But the energy of the pan starts when the craftspeople touch that drum. Raw material is just raw material. The craftspeople are what is indigenous to us and that is what we are proud of.”

MITTCO says training programmes at the MIC Institute of Technology and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) train new craftspeople to ensure the skills continuity.

“When the UTT’s and the UWI’s (University of the West Indies) and the MIC’s finish with their cohort they then send them to MITTCO to have internships, on-the-job training alongside the professionals.

“That apprentice type of unfolding means more and more artisans would be coming into the industry. That should be ongoing until. There is no timeline, that is an ongoing process from now until forever.”

Asked about ensuring that the innovations in pan manufacturing are properly trademarked and patented as inventions of this country, Leith said most of the people who came up with the inventions have their trademarks and necessary legal requirements in place.

However, there was something more powerful than a patent which was the Geographical Indication for TT’s pans, Leith said.

On August 9 last year the GI for pan was officially registered.

“This simply means that an authentic steelpan could only come from TT. A patent lasts for 25 years, a GI lasts forever,” he said.

Leith added if TT started to focus on the pan manufacturing sector a little more and give it the resources, TT could become a massive forex earner.

He said 80 per cent of MITTCO’s products were exported.

“The potential of that is rising and rising. We just came back from Barbados, Canada. We went to Belize this year, UK.

“There is a lot of that. We went to Japan for a trade show. Forex is definitely possible.”

Guests were treated to a performance by star pannist Johann Chuckaree.