Technical Assistance for Export Development

IICA in collaboration with the Agricultural Competitiveness Programme (ACP) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is continuing to facilitate the development of an export platform for selected Agro Parks. The Agro Parks are targeted geographical locations with important physical infrastructure and technical services to enable farmers to produce choice commodities according to market requirements. The Agro Parks are being rolled out by the ACP through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank.

IICA in collaboration with the ACP facilitated a buyers’ mission from the US to Jamaica in August to explore potential opportunities for exporting Jamaican produce into the US. The buyers visited selected Agro Parks and met with farmers and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss export opportunities and view produce samples. The buyers expressed pleasure with the produce viewed and recommended actions to prepare the parks for export. 

In June, two representatives from IICA’s Agribusiness and Commercialisation Unit (PAC) delivered the first phase of a training programme to build the capacity of local farmers to export to the United States (US) market. Farmers and managers from three Agro Parks (based in St. Thomas, Clarendon, and Manchester) and other technicians participated in training sessions to learn about basic information on the US market for fresh produce and requirements for exporting to the US market. The IICA trainees also provided information to the Agro Park Managers and Ministry of Agriculture personnel on strategies to drive exports to the US, such as gaining an understanding of the US market information databases.

The training sessions followed visits to the US in May by Ministry personnel alongside an International Trade Consultant sourced by IICA to validate selected Jamaican fresh products in two US markets – the northeast region comprised of New York and Philadelphia and the southeast region comprised by three counties of Florida. The missions sought to gain an understanding of the demand for various produce from Jamaica, the characteristics of each market and the legal and market requirements for exporting to the US.

In late 2014 the International Trade Consultant had visited Jamaica to view the Agro Parks and subsequently completed an initial report to assess US market prospects for fresh produce exports from Jamaica. The report identified a list of products that can be produced in Jamaica that have good potential in the US market. The May 2015 missions to US markets aimed to build on the initial investigation and thus enable the Agro Parks to prioritise crops to pursue for export and put in place the required actions to meet the US market demands

The assistance being provided by IICA to grow exports of Jamaican produce is being executed under a technical assistance agreement signed between the ACP, IICA and the Ministry in 2014.