KINGSTON, Jamaica— Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) President Diane Edwards says the agency is intensifying its export development activities to further boost the success of Jamaica’s non-traditional exports.

The agency said it has hosted sessions to develop the castor industry, encourage the development of new products, and hosted a series of exporter development seminars that address issues with pricing, logistics, marketing and export readiness for companies.

The final session, “Transporting your products to overseas markets – what exporters need to know”, was held on August 24, and was facilitated by Diaspora investor and logistics specialist Beverley Johnson, CEO & managing director of ISOCON-JLB International Ltd.

Edwards said that while the agency has been working with exporters for many years to increase Jamaica’s export sales, JAMPRO has been making a more targeted effort to provide capacity building opportunities for Jamaican manufacturers who are export ready, and those who are already exporting.

“We have identified key issues that are decreasing our potential to export. Incorrect labelling, lack of marketing strategy, lack of knowledge of international product standards, and lack of funding and productivity, are probably the most common issues that we have identified amongst exporters”, Edwards said.

“Therefore,” she added, “We have been making a targeted effort to address the issues, and this includes working with partners like the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association, the Jamaica Exporters’ Association, the Jamaica Productivity Centre and the Development Bank of Jamaica. We have seen through our export development programme Export Max and other initiatives that these interventions work and we want to continue to support exporters as far as our resources allow. Exporters need Jamaica’s full support to build our economy, and we plan to lead this charge by fully executing our export development strategy”.