Forever seemingly ahead of the rest of the regional ‘game’ in its thrust to promote Jamaica, the country’s Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) has sealed a deal with DHL Jamaica that will afford businesses in the country’s productive sector logistical support.
A report in last Monday’s issue of the Jamaica Observer says that the service will apply “whether they (the businesses) are importing or exporting those products.” The offer reportedly comes with what the Observer says is a “special pricing programme exclusively for JMEA members” that will afford them “preferential rates,” DHL Jamaica’s Commercial Manager Michelle Anderson is quoted as saying. The Jamaica DHL official is also quoted as saying that part of the objective of the new partnership is to provide support for the wider ‘family’ of Jamaican companies seeking to export goods. Jamaica has long won both the attention and the admiration of the rest of the region for the success that it has realized in reaching mainstream markets in Europe, North America and elsewhere with its local produce, including a wide range of agro products. The rest of the region has been markedly less successful in this regard.
With regard to the most recent agreement, DHL will assign a member of its sales team to any JMEA member who signs up for an account to share the company’s expertise in global trade. Shipments are not limited to large-volume or small-volume items as Anderson joked that DHL can move anything from the size of an envelope to an elephant. DHL reportedly facilitates the movement of cargo up to 2,000 kilogrammes to and from 221 countries across the world. The company has been operating in Jamaica for over 30 years and has hubs in Florida, USA; Panama and the ABC Islands; and Trinidad and Barbados in the eastern Caribbean, according to the media report from Jamaica on the development. In contrast to the success which Jamaica has enjoyed in pursuit of accessing international markets for its products, the rest of the region, including Guyana, has been less successful.
Contextually, the extra-regional export of agro produce, particularly, from Guyana, has been compromised by inefficient administrative arrangements, failure to effectively ‘connect’ with cargo movement services and the country’s inability to create reliable links with marketing operatives in countries that might offer lucrative export markets. Local officials have sought to make the point that the growing international oil-driven popularity from which Guyana has been benefitting in recent years coupled with the strengthening of the business ‘end’ of the country’s diplomatic missions overseas, could pave the way for the more successful marketing of locally manufactured agro produce, particularly, though not exclusively, on the international market.
