President of the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), Diane Edwards, product innovation could be the key to boosting Jamaica’s exports. 

Speaking with Kalilah Reynolds, Edwards noted that there are many Jamaican products that could strive on international markets if they were offered. 

She noted that JAMPRO provides a suite of services to business owners to help get their products ready for export. 

“What we do is offer exporters a full-service experience from start to finish. We help to analyse the product, helping you to decide if this product is export market ready and which international market may be best,” she said. 

Edwards said that the agency also assists in matching exporters with the right importers that will help get their product recognised on international markets. 

JAMPRO will also assist in the marketing and promotion of the products once they get to other markets.

To that extent, Edwards said that JAMPRO is focused on furthering the reach of ‘Brand Jamaica’. 

“A lot of things that do Brand Jamaica, we have a lot of opportunity there,” she added.

She noted that there is already a lot of interest in many Jamaican products, whether it be from the diaspora or non-Jamaicans.

She did note, however, that exporting is not an easy task, especially for farmers. 

“A lot of our small farmers don’t understand the markets that they’re selling into and what we try to do at JAMPRO is help to interpret those markets for them,” she said.

She said that the agency helps producers adapt to their various markets. She added that increased production is needed in order to compete with many of the larger brands that offer the same or similar products.

“We also have to simplify the methods and the processes of exporting, because they’re too many steps in the process of exporting,” Edwards said.

She said that JAMPRO is working hard to remove some of these steps and simplify the export process.