A number of the persons who attended yesterday’s final day of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association/Jamaica Exporters Association “Buy Jamaica” exposition at the National Arena in Kingston said they were impressed by the quality of goods and services on display in the 229 booths.

“I am very pleased with the quality of products I have seen here today,” Michael Hall, a 32 year-old self-employed man told the Observer. “This makes me feel good about my country and I will certainly buy more local products once the quality is of an acceptable standard,” added Hall, who was among the thousands of people who attended the last day of the expo.

The well-decorated booths displayed commodities representing the construction, garment manufacturing, music, chemical, cosmetics, food and agricultural, furniture, and pharmaceutical industries.

In addition, the financial, mining and metals, printing and packaging sectors were also well represented.

Minister of Tourism and Industry Aloun N’dombet Assamba praised the local manufacturing sector at yesterday’s closing ceremony for the expo.

“Manufacturing is not dead. There is a lot of life in the sector and it shows that when Jamaicans decide to do something nothing can stop us,” Assamba said.

Meanwhile, there were stories of hardship turned success at the exposition.

Kenrick Thompson of the Queens KLM and chairman of the St Elizabeth Bee Farmers Association produces a smooth-tasting honey wine and other honey by-products.

But according to Thompson, the bee farmers in the parish were suffering severe hardships and after meeting with each other, resolved that diversifying into other honey-based products could increase their profit margin and ensure consumption of the honey they produced.

“We were not doing well with the farming so we did our research and we found out about honey wine,” Thompson said. “The Jamaican and international community don’t know about it so the expo has helped us to bring it to the wider Jamaican public.”

Jamaican honey, Thompson said, was rated among the world’s finest and demands a good price on the European market.

“We will soon be going to Europe with a container load,” Thompson told the Observer.

The thousands of potential buyers who turned out at the exposition milled about busily and sampled food and drinks from the local food companies.

The organisers of the JMA/JEA Expo awarded sectional prizes for booths which met certain criteria.

Digicel received the award for the best use of technology in a booth, Lydford Mining was voted as having the most informative booth, while Walkerswood Caribbean Foods booth was deemed to have best captured the Jamaican spirit.