JAMPRO Hosts Business Opportunities Seminar

Jamaica Promotions Corporation’s (JAMPRO) capacity targeting increased exports has been significantly boosted by its acquisition of market research data relating to the United States, one of the country’s largest trading partners.

The research, commissioned by American airline, Delta, was undertaken across the Caribbean during the latter half of 2013 by Argentinean consultancy firm, RGX International.

The exercise focused on international best practices for successful enterprise and targeted 100 regional firms, including 20 in Jamaica for surveys, which explored the entities’ capacity and capability to access and channel their products into the United States market of nearly 300 million persons.

The findings of the research were unveiled by RGX Consultant, Sonia Garcia, during a seminar at the Knutsford Court Hotel New Kingston, on Thursday (March 13) The seminar was a collaboration of  JAMPRO, Delta, the American Chamber of Commerce in Jamaica (AMCHAM), and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), under the theme: ‘Good Practices and Business Opportunities with the USA’.

Ms. Garcia’s presentation focused on several key areas, including: market access; barriers to trade; trade agreements; cost and pricing mechanisms; and packaging and labeling, among others. The full presentation can be accessed on Jampro’s website at www.jamprocorp.com

Speaking with JIS News following the seminar, Jampro Vice President for Export and Market Development, Robert Scott, welcomed the research study, the resulting data generated, and the seminar’s staging.

Describing activities as “tremendously important”, Mr. Scoot pointed to the need for recognition of the market potential which the United States presents for Jamaican exporters.  In this regard, he urged that “companies, therefore, need (to take steps) to access this market (as) it’s a market in our backyard.”

Mr. Scott said the seminar was particularly timely, in light of the guidance which exporters continuously seek from Jampro “as we ramp up our export thrust, (and) exporters are building capacity in their business to meet markets.”’

“This seminar…(gave) ‘street level’ market information (on, for example) how do you get to the companies that will be selling your products, what are the barriers, what are the things that you (would otherwise) never know. (There are) people who will do some amount of export, and they will get that first order, (but) they never get a second order, (and) they never have a clue (as to) why. These are some of the things that…now that we are aware of them, we can make those changes to our organizations, we can build the capacity, (and) we can address the problems,” he stated, while adding that the research data “(will be) added to (further boost) the body of data that we (currently) have,” he explained.

Mr. Scott described JAMPRO’s role in the process as “project managers”, explaining that “we put persons in contact with each other…and (helped) to put the things together.”

“We were contacted (by Delta, and) through our networks, (with) access to all of our manufacturers, exporters (among others) it was very easy for us to (get) interested persons to (participate). So, hats off to the Jampro team who worked here very assiduously for the last couple of weeks to put this (seminar) together and help to make it the success that it has been today… and we are all so much happier as a result of that,” Mr. Scott stated.