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Thursday, May 22, 2025

Local company opens steelpan manufacturing facility in Diego Martin

by

CARISA LEE
1013 days ago
20220812
MITTCO, Director, Akua Leith, right, describes the steelpan manufacturing process to THA Chief Secretary, Farley Augustine, second from right, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee Scoon, House Speaker, Bridged Annisette -George and FCB Head Brand and Marketing, Gillian Benjamin, during the launch of the Musical Instruments of Trinidad and Tobago Company Limited at the e Teck Diamond Vale Business Park, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin, yesterday

MITTCO, Director, Akua Leith, right, describes the steelpan manufacturing process to THA Chief Secretary, Farley Augustine, second from right, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee Scoon, House Speaker, Bridged Annisette -George and FCB Head Brand and Marketing, Gillian Benjamin, during the launch of the Musical Instruments of Trinidad and Tobago Company Limited at the e Teck Diamond Vale Business Park, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin, yesterday

ANISTO ALVES

On the day the world cel­e­brat­ed T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment, came an his­toric day for the steel­pan. The Mu­si­cal In­stru­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (MITTCO) of­fi­cial­ly opened its doors in Diego mar­tin, yes­ter­day.

MITTCO is a steel­pan man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty at the Di­a­mond Vale Busi­ness Park that pro­motes re­li­able ar­ti­san pro­duc­tion of steel­pans through a com­bi­na­tion of tra­di­tion­al and in­no­v­a­tive man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es.

Dur­ing the launch­ing, brain­child and Di­rec­tor of Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment of MITTCO, Akua Lei­th, said see­ing his idea come to life was sur­re­al.

“The en­er­gy has been hap­pen­ing for quite some time, 2018 the idea came, 2019, I met with Mario and Mr Hack­et lat­er that year, I met with the Hadad broth­ers and HAD­CO and then we start­ed to es­tab­lish this in 2020,” Lei­th said.

He said the fac­to­ry start­ed man­u­fac­tur­ing in 2021 not just to build stock but to test the qual­i­ty of a state-of-the-art in­stru­ment.

“We ac­tu­al­ly sold our very first pan to Pe­ter Cavendish, the Am­bas­sador of the Eu­ro­pean Union,” Lei­th said

He said they were al­ways go­ing to launch dur­ing Au­gust to co­in­cide with the cel­e­bra­tion of Pan Month and there was no bet­ter day than World Steel­pan Day.

Di­rec­tor Mario Joseph, who has been in the pan fra­ter­ni­ty for 35-plus years, said yes­ter­day was a glo­ri­ous day for them, as it showed the world who is the mec­ca of the steel­pan.

Joseph said this fac­to­ry will not on­ly pro­duce steel­pans but give young peo­ple in­ter­est­ed in the steel­pan an op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn about the mu­si­cal in­stru­ment.

“So, the dy­ing art won’t die,” he said.

Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try Paula Gopee-Scoon, dur­ing her ad­dress, said the fa­cil­i­ty showed this coun­try’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment is not in dan­ger.

She said yes­ter­day’s launch was sym­bol­ic of the vi­sion and part­ner­ships the Gov­ern­ment wish­es to see in the cre­ative in­dus­try, adding the ven­ture rep­re­sents di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion to its core birthed from the syn­er­gy of cul­ture and busi­ness.

Gopee-Scoon said com­pa­ny was more than an in­vest­ment, as it rep­re­sent­ed the pas­sion for cul­ture along with trust and faith in the po­ten­tial of our na­tion­al in­stru­ment, which will un­doubt­ed­ly lead to the growth of the in­dus­try and pro­pel steel­pan in­stru­ments proud­ly.

“Made in Trinidad and To­ba­go on the world stage, where it so right­ful­ly be­longs,” Gopee-Scoon said.

She con­grat­u­lat­ed the MITTCO team and promised Gov­ern­ment’s sup­port.

Al­so present was To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine. He agreed with Gopee-Scoon that “pan is not in dan­ger,” but said it once seemed so when oth­ers mass pro­duced our na­tion­al in­stru­ment. He said MITTCO al­lows for T&T to put its man­u­fac­tur­ing stamp on its cre­ation.

“For us to say to the world you don’t need to buy the coun­ter­feit, just buy it from those who un­der­stand pan the best,” he said.

Au­gus­tine said the man­u­fac­tur­ing of the steel­pan here will al­so give young peo­ple a chance to get in­volved in T&T’s cul­ture.

“What I see hap­pen­ing every sin­gle year around Panora­ma, I see hun­dreds of young peo­ple mov­ing about the coun­try, some mov­ing from Trinidad and vice ver­sa ... spend­ing all night do­ing it, I’ve seen young peo­ple push trol­leys off the boat,” he ex­plained.

Af­ter a tour of the fa­cil­i­ty, Au­gus­tine said, “This is one of our great­est gifts to the world if not our great­est gift as a na­tion.”

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