KINGSTON, Jamaica – Expo Jamaica 2023 provides the opportunity for businesses to jump-start exports coming out of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, says President of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), John Mahfood.

“We see this as an event to re-energise our manufacturers, who are now gearing up and putting behind us, the recovery mode or survival mode and now looking to expand their businesses overseas,” he said.

“My expectation is that this, more than any other expo, will bring us together and galvanise the effort at exporting,” he added.

Mahfood was speaking at a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank held at the agency’s head office in Kingston.

The 48th staging of Expo Jamaica, under the theme: ‘Connecting the World to Jamaica’ will be held from April 27 to 30 at the National Indoor Sports Centre and the National Arena.

Mahfood said that the four-day event will enable Jamaican businesses to meet and develop relationships with various buyers and distributors from all over the globe over a short period of time and at one location.

He said it would be difficult and costly for local entrepreneurs to make these contacts if they had to travel to seek these markets by themselves.

“So, imagine if you were to visit all of the countries in the Caribbean and spend three or five days trying to find distributors for your products? It would take a significantly long time to go through every country and it would be very expensive,” he pointed out.

Noting that the business sector has faced challenges due to COVID-19, Mahfood said that “Jamaica has bounced back in a strong way.”

“We are at a point where we have to be thinking strategically about growing our businesses. We have many years of good fortune to come, and this is the greatest opportunity for our businesspeople to step up and step out of the conservative mode that we have been in, and that is what I hope we will see from this expo,” he said.

– JIS