Pamela Coke-Hamilton and Hon. Donville Inness
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Bridgetown, BARBADOS - The
Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) convened a high level
regional consultation to examine the rationale for market intelligence and its
relevance to building export competitiveness; and to secure agreement on the
development of a regional export strategy. The consultations took place from June
5th- 6th at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, Barbados. The
meeting was attended by stakeholders from across the region.
In her opening remarks
Executive Director for Caribbean Export, Pamela Coke Hamilton, stressed that
“Market research and competitive intelligence can help, and is necessary for
helping the CARIFORUM private sector to better understand a number of issues in
export markets such as the market entry requirements for their products,
consumer demand patterns and trends, competitor and substitute products,
distribution networks and the regulatory requirements that affect their
businesses.”
Caribbean Export has a
mandate under the 10th EDF Regional Private Sector Development
Programme (RPSDP) which speaks to the development of a regional trade and
market intelligence system. The Agency’s
efforts to date have focused on the delivery of products and services based on
the trade information needs identified by the private sector and Business
Support Organisations (BSOs) across the region. An important tool in the
arsenal is the Caribbean Export Market Intelligence Portal (CE-MIP), an online
tool which provides searchable market research features as well as a library of
market intelligence products.
This consultation meeting
also enabled much needed open dialogue between the stakeholders to help inform decisions
on the formulation of regional export strategies. There is a direct link between market intelligence
and export strategy development, which must be understood if the trajectory of
regional exports is to be augmented. “We must also identify and select
attractive markets based on global supply and demand trends, trade flows and
market access for our products.
Understanding those markets is invaluable before engaging in any firm-specific
building initiatives,” stated Coke-Hamilton.
Minister of Industry,
International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Hon. Donville
Inniss reiterated the Executive Director’s remarks, commenting that what is of
“paramount importance for firms is their ability to design and implement
marketing programmes to communicate the existence of their products within
external markets and to put in place feedback mechanisms through which they
improve on their product offerings”. “Far too often we are still going according
to gut feelings or personal contacts. We
must accept that market research is an integral part of the firms activities
into which appropriate human and financial capital must be invested.”
Caribbean
Export also unveiled an Exporters Toolkit the aim of which is to provide a
suite of information, guides, and templates to support region’s private sector
in their efforts for exporting. The two-day consultations concluded with
stakeholders endorsing the CE-MIP and confirming the need for continued build
out of the current market intelligence products such as the Market Pointers and
Market Opportunity Briefs. Stakeholders also endorsed the development of
regional strategies for agro-processing, creative industries, and
higher-education services but with a focus on brand development, enhancing
access to the global value chain for regional producers and exporters, and
strengthening of IP elements; and gave the thumbs-up for the Caribbean
Exporter’s Toolkit expected to be launched shortly.
