HAVING surpassed the 500-buyer mark at the last in-person hosting of Expo Jamaica back in 2018, the organisers of the trade show are aiming for the attendance of over 600 buyers when it returns to its stomping grounds of the National Arena and National Indoor Sports Centre in April next year.

The trade fair, which will be held from April 27 – 30, 2023, returns to its usual face-to-face format after cancellation in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and hosting a virtual show last year.

“We’ve survived the pandemic and we’re [for] 2023 to…be bigger, better and certainly more effective for all stakeholders involved in the show,” chairman of the organising committee Aswad Morgan told a gathering at the media launch of the event last Friday at the BMW Autobahn showroom in New Kingston.

Morgan, who is the marketing director of Morgan’s Group of Companies — a member of Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), which is the Expo Jamaica’s lead organiser — added that the main focus is to give members of the productive sector, in particular, “who have a dream to export”, a platform.

Dubbed “the biggest trade show in the Caribbean”, Expo Jamaica allows local suppliers from Jamaica’s productive sector to interact with international buyers mainly drawn from the country’s major trading partners — the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the Caribbean Community (Caricom). Aptly, the theme for the 2023 installation is ‘Connecting Jamaica’.

However, while Brand Jamaica boasts a prominent appeal on the world market, Ricardo Durrant, investment promotion and export manager at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro), pointed out that visibility “does not translate into sales”.

“Our role at Jampro will be getting local and international buyers to attend the event…Our target for 2023 is 600 buyers. To achieve this goal we’ll be working closely with our suppliers to understand the markets they are targeting,” he continued.

Jampro is another organiser of Expo Jamaica 2023. Within its arsenal of tools to woo international buyers is the number of marketing and promotion assets that Jampro’s overseas offices in the US, UK and Canada will deploy. According to Durrant, Jampro’s UK office will extend these assets to buyers in continental Europe.

Additionally, Jampro will tap into its database of over 200 companies across the globe that have participated in previous installations of the event.

“We potentially can find a buyer in any market that you’re targeting,” Durrant, who spearheads buyer recruitment, boasted.

“We’re also going to work with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs [and Foreign Trade] through the Economic Diplomacy Programme (EDP) just to send out the information worldwide so that persons will know we have a trade show,” he told Jamaica Observer in an interview.

As part of the EDP, Jampro works with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade as well as embassies, consulates and high commissions to organise trade missions, secure new export markets and invite international entities to participate in local fora and expositions.

For this year, Morgan also revealed that the organisers are taking a more targeted approach by asking exhibitors about the buyers and countries they hope to reach.

“We’re trying to expand the number of countries that we get these buyers from, so…we asked the exhibitors what territories they’re looking to expand their businesses [into] and we’re looking to ensure that we bring those buyers from those countries to make sure it [Expo Jamaica] is the perfect platform,” he told Caribbean Business Report, adding that new exhibitors would also attract new buyers.

In terms of local buyers, the organisers will also invite hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, and educational institutions.

The launch of Expo Jamaica 2023 was also occasion for the preview of the event’s website, which allows both buyers and exhibitors to register with the latter having the option to choose booth location.

“A website for us is a crucial tool in which we have all those elements including sponsors being represented,” Kamesha Blake, executive director of JMEA, said while introducing the website.