Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC), Sharonmae Shirley, says the organisation is targeting the accreditation of 50 inspection bodies for 2019. Speaking with JIS News, Mrs. Shirley said they are aiming to get the standards of local and regional inspection bodies aligned with international standards. “Inspection body accreditation means allowing a third party (JANAAC) to come...

President of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (JMEA), Metry Seaga, says the upcoming Jamaica International Exhibition (JIE) will be another opportunity for local businesses to promote their goods and services to an international audience. Slated for the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St. James, from May 30 to June 1, Mr. Seaga said the trade show will...

The Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (JMEA) will be pushing to capitalise on business opportunities that are available in the international market, says the entity’s President, Metry Seaga. “We are surrounded by an abundance of opportunities for Jamaican exports,” he said. “The United Kingdom’s (UK) import market grew by one per cent in 2017, which amounted to US$4.9 billion, while...

Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government will be taking a multipronged approach to improve the coffee industry. This includes market diversification and the increased productivity and production of Blue Mountain, High Mountain and Lowland coffee. Addressing the launch of the second annual Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New...

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says that the Alternative Development Programme (ADP), which will provide an avenue for small ganja farmers to benefit from the ganja industry, will start by March 2019. The programme aims to prevent and eliminate the illicit cultivation of ganja and channel the process through legal streams. The pilot, which will commence in Accompong,...

Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government is examining long-term solutions that will place the coffee industry in a better position. Among the solutions suggested is the reduction of infringements on the Jamaica Blue Mountain and Jamaica High Mountain coffee trademarks on the international scene, as well as locally, through the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory...

The St. Ann office of the Social Development Commission (SDC), in partnership with the St. Ann Municipal Corporation, is giving small entrepreneurs in the parish a push-start through the Local Economic Development Support Programme (LEDSP). The LEDSP is one of seven programmes of the SDC through which different partners in a local area are brought together to work and harness...