Caribbean Virtual Agri-Food Trade Mission 2022

The second Caribbean Virtual Agri-Food Trade Mission was held from 15–17 November 2022 to promote commercial exchange between companies from the Caribbean and other regions, to foster trade linkages among agri-food sector entities, and to assist Caribbean companies in consolidating or diversifying their export markets. A total of 172 participants (companies, ministries, UN agencies and programmes, etc.) from five regions (Caribbean, Central, South America and North America, the United Kingdom) engaged virtually in business meetings hosted by a platform that was available in English and Spanish. The countries with the highest numbers of participants were Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Saint Lucia. A Caribbean company participated in 106 of the 125 online meetings.

Caribbean companies represented 88% of all participants; of a total of 151 companies, 8 either presented their business in one of the seven sessions of the IICA-COLEACP Caribbean Agrifood Business Series and/or attended these sessions as participants.

According to the feedback collected from 42 participants who answered an optional survey at the end of the business meetings:

• The reason why companies participated in the business meetings were to meet prospective customers (57%) and to make business contacts (43%)
• 78% of the participating companies achieved the meeting purpose
• Meetings resulted in an estimated business amount of US$1,225,000.

The second Caribbean Virtual Agri-Food Trade Mission was co-organised by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Central American Trade Network regional (SIECA) Central American Trade Network (REDCA) and COLEACP through the Fit For Market Plus programme (FFM+). This activity is part of the collaboration between IICA and COLEACP to develop joint activities supporting entrepreneurship in the Caribbean.

Joint activities like the Caribbean Agrifood Business Series aim to support entrepreneurs, farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to seize opportunities offered by local, regional and export markets that are economically, environmentally and socially viable. The best practices, innovations and technologies presented by inspiring Caribbean farmer-led businesses and SMEs are available to watch here or can be (re-)discovered by reading this article.

This activity is supported by the Fit For Market+ programme, implemented by COLEACP within the Framework of Development Cooperation between the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union.