Keen to boost the competitiveness of its foods, beverages, and locally produced goods, on the international marketplace, Trinidad and Tobago has announced the launch of a project aimed at building a culture of quality in the goods that it produces in order to afford them enhanced opportunities to compete with foreign goods and services.
A report in the T&T media says that the quality-enhancing initiative will train its sights on food and beverage manufacturing, business, professional, and information communications technology services, agriculture, and agro-processing as areas that will be the focus of attention as the country sets its sights on enhancing the competitiveness of these goods and services on the international market.
The report says that the initiative is being facilitated with support from the European Union and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and will particularly target improvement in the quality of goods and services that target the export market.
Trinidad and Tobago’s move to put ‘a brighter shine’ on the country’s export-bound goods and services points the way for much of a region whose primary external market challenges include issues pertaining to export access and aspects of product presentation, not least packaging and labelling.
The Trinidad and Tobago project which has been named the ‘Building a Quality Culture in Trini-dad and Tobago: Implementation of the National Quality Policy’ project, has been launched through the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards, (TTBS) and will help to support a series of activities contributing to the overall competitiveness of goods and services produced for export.
The project, according to the media report, “will provide a wide range of improvements such as increasing public awareness and understanding of the national quality policy, as well as creating deeper consumer understanding of quality concepts and an appreciation for the importance of quality in their daily lives.”
Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Director of Projects Daniel Best, reportedly said that the project envisions an environment where citizens understand and demand goods and services of the highest standard and where there is a business sector that produces what the in-formed customer demands. “The trickle-down effect of this paradigm is a shift in the country’s capacity to produce commodities exceeding international standards… this result in increased quality will better position Trinidad and Tobago’s goods and services in the global marketplace,” Best is quoted as saying.
Aspects of product quality pertaining particularly to packaging and labelling have long been the Achilles heel of the manufacturing sector in Guyana where the emergence of a surfeit of mostly agro-processed produce in relatively recent years has not been matched by comparable standards of product presentation, specifically packaging and labelling. Not only have many local agro-processors failed to make a mark on the international market but their products have, in large measure, failed to compete effectively with imported ones amongst local consumers.
In commenting on the initiative, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopie-Scoon is quoted as saying that global purchasers require products and services that meet rigorous and advanced standards of quality to ensure that such products and services integrate flawlessly with others in the supply chain.” The initiative, she added, will “allow manufacturers and service suppliers to attach themselves to global value chains as they become versed in global best practices.”
Trinidad and Tobago’s manufacturing sector currently comprises a large number of medium and small enterprises, accounts for over 50,000 employees, and contributes 9% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to the media report.
