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Like most Caribbean islands, the Dominican Republic is abundant in fruit. They are also known for producing some of the most varied of these tropical delicacies in the world, and the local sector is flourishing on the global stage. One company that is reaping the benefits of this competitive advantage is Procesadora Vizcaya. The family-owned business was established in 1986, and manufactures and distributes a wide range of tropical fruits and fruit products for mass consumption.

“We have two lines, one for consumers and the other for factories in the food industry. The consumer line consists of locally grown fruit-based jams, syrup, pastes and pulps,” explained General Manager Miguel González Gerente. “For the factories, we produce tropical fruit bowls and value added products for the ice cream industry and the jam industry to name a few.”

Procesadora Vizcaya also packages whole and ground oregano, cinnamon, annatto, coriander seeds, sesame seeds, pepper and other spices for distribution. The company currently employs 52 persons full time, and an additional 45 seasonal staff to handle the increased production during peak times.

Miguel shared that his father established Procesadora Vizcaya because he saw the opportunity to meet the demand for tropical fruits in the Latin community, and the local factory industry.

“This was how we actually found our niche in the fruit manufacturing sector. After undertaking market research to ascertain consumer needs, we noticed that there was a void there to fill. So we started with a small line of fruit products to satisfy those needs and that is how we gained our competitive advantage.”

With a primary focus on the needs of the consumer, Procesadora Vizcaya carved out a formidable share of the local market and is now considered one of the leaders in this sector. In addition to serving the local Latin community, the company targets consumers in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. In the regional and international spheres, the 28 year-old company has successfully broken into Aruba, Haiti, Turks and Caicos, Saint Maarten, Canada, and Spain.

“Our export market strategy was built on finding a distributor who was reliable and had sound knowledge of the market we wanted to enter. We also looked for factories who needed a company like us to develop products for them to distribute, and also saw the potential for us to grow as a partnership.”

Miguel admits that many of the achievements they have today didn’t come without challenges, but they endured and heeded the lessons that were learnt along the way.

“Getting the products in the big chain supermarkets in the Dominican Republic was challenging because we were a relatively unknown brand competing against bigger names. In the international market, finding distributors that wanted to work with a new brand was also difficult. But we continued to manufacture our products to the highest quality and standard, and this translated into customer loyalty, and we eventually overcame the hurdles.”

As Procesadora Vizcaya continues to expand, Miguel sees the value of establishing strong relationships with local and regional organisations committed to the growth of the Caribbean firms.

“One of the local agences that has been extremely supportive of us is the Centre for Export and Investment in the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD). In fact it is was through them that we began to work with the Caribbean Export Development Agency, and that engagement has had a tremendous impact on us.”

In 2012, Procesadora Vizcaya was selected as one of 22 regional firms to participate in a 10-day Study Tour to France, Germany and the UK. This was the first mission that Miguel had attended with support by Caribbean Export, which he views as extremely beneficial to his company.

“During the Study Tour, we learned about the different manufacturing processes of international companies and it provided an opportunity for us to see how we could improve on our own production practices. We also met with European buyers and distributors with the hopes of establishing promising contacts.”

The company also participated in the CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum in London that year, and the Havana International Fair in Cuba in 2013.

During 2014, the relationship between Caribbean Export and Procesadora Vizcaya continued to strengthen with the firm’s participation in Expo Jamaica, the CARIFORUMFCOR/ OCT Business Forum in the Cayman Islands, a technical visit to France and Belgium, and the award of a
grant under the Direct Assistance Grant Scheme and the Special Call for Food Safety Proposals.

Miguel believes that Caribbean Export has contributed to his company’s success in three ways. He credits them with affording Procesadora Vizcaya tangible opportunities that would have been hard to achieve without such steadfast support.

“The Agency has given us continued exposure at business meetings and tradeshows where we have been able to forge partnerships with firms and buyers in Europe and the Caribbean. We were also fortunate to receive financial assistance to improve our operations and modernize our
lab with the aim of improving our efficiency and output capacity.”

In the medium to long-term Procesadora Vizcaya intends to expand globally, and be recognised as a major supplier of tropical fruit products. Over the next six months, the company hopes to enter the market in Jamaica, Barbados, and Guadeloupe.

Miguel thinks that other regional firms can successfully break into international markets if they maintain the highest possible quality and standards, and remain authentic to the Caribbean brand.

“At Procesadora Vizcaya we have gained Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and European Quality Assurance (EQA) certification because of the value they add to our products and the process by which they are created. We’ve also seen that the Caribbean produces excellent products, which are innately unique to us as a people. I think it is important to remember this and use it to our advantage on the global stage.”

Miguel’s dedication and belief in delivery unwavering quality provides the right foundation to not only nourish his family’s business, but also position Procesadora Vizcaya as a world-class brand.

This article was originally published in Primed for Success Vol. 3.

While the Caribbean is primarily focused on getting artists discovered, other parts of the world are more focused on artist development.

That is according to Trevor Pretty, Chief Executive Officer of Pretty Boy Worldwide, whose company has adopted the latter model with the aim to not only develop regional artists but to launch successful careers.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Pretty Boy artist showcase held at Rascals in Barbados last December, Trevor Pretty revealed that the event was the climax of a two week songwriting camp. He said the intense workshop was attended by singers, songwriters and producers from Trinidad, Dominica, Curaçao, St. Maarten, Miami, Philadelphia and New York. Some of the participants were handpicked after they took part in the 4th CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum held in Germany.

The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) staged the business forum in September 2019 in an effort to expose regional entertainers to European music executives and consumers.

Caribbean Export also provided Pretty Boy Worldwide with technical support to host the songwriting camp and artist showcase in Barbados.

Trevor Pretty explained: We picked the best artists [from the business forum] and we are going to develop their careers. We talked to each artist, found out what their genre was, their direction and the stories they wanted to tell and we created new records for everybody, everybody got an album. It wasn’t just a music camp, they wrote songs but they had a photoshoot, received graphic direction, had a social media workshop, shot music videos and had a live performance workshop.

At the end of the songwriting camp there was a showcase where some of the artists performed for music executives from major music labels, international publicists, publishers, managers, branding companies and key radio personalities from the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States.

The Pretty Boy CEO disclosed his goal was to get artists signed to international publishing or record deals, joint ventures and tour opportunities through his independent Caribbean company.

The Caribbean is a focus point, it has been for a very long time but we do this thing where one artist makes it and then there is a gap, and then another artist makes it, what we are planning is that a bunch would go together.

Artists being discovered in the Caribbean, that’s one angle, in every other part of the world artists are being developed. We have adopted the programme of developing artists and from this their careers will be launched, Trevor Pretty outlined.

Keecia Ellis of Jack Russell Music Publishing praised the songwriting camp, stating she had seen growth in the artists that she had met just two months prior at the 4th CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum. Being able to witness such a growth in a short space of time was excellent because it means they are really in development for the music industry, she observed, adding that the business forum was an excellent idea since the artists were exposed to the UK format.

Emerging talent is really what we are after, said the music executive whose company solely deals with Caribbean genres. She outlined that Jack Russell Music Publishing was open to signing publishing deals, assisting with artist development and creating collaborations between Caribbean and UK artists.

Lauding Pretty Boy Worldwide and Caribbean Export for staging the songwriting camp and showcase, Keecia Ellis said, It is definitely needed. Caribbean culture is such a great thing and a lot of Western communities take that culture and make it their own. The potential within the Caribbean community is beyond belief and I feel we could expand it into the Western world because a lot of the music they are making is ours anyway.

One of the artists handpicked by Trevor Pretty to attend the songwriting camp in Barbados was Kenyo Baly, who hails from the island of St. Maarten.

Describing the experience as magical, Kenyo said, Being surrounded by artists, producers, and videographers from the Caribbean and being able to relate and exchanges differences, [it made] the creative process so amazing.

He admitted he gained tremendously as his songwriting skills have improved. Being here you see different styles of writing that might be a bit more structured than yours. I hope to get better with my songwriting because that is where the money is at. So besides being an artist, I see myself writing songs for a bunch of people.

Kenyo Baly expressed gratitude to Pretty Boy Worldwide and Caribbean Export for providing a platform to help advance business opportunities in the field.

Being a boy from the small island of St. Maarten which is only 37 square miles, this is a milestone to have the opportunity to be before executives from Universal, Def Jam, and Sony. It is almost like I didn’t have these resources but having these resources now I did my best even though I was nervous at first. I got really good news tonight. I am grateful for Pretty Boy Worldwide for giving me this opportunity and it is very important for Caribbean Export to support initiatives like this because not everyone has access to these resources We wouldn’t be here without Caribbean Export, Kenyo Baly affirmed.

The Pretty Boy Worldwide CEO agreed with this statement; he too commended Caribbean Export for providing technical support to regional businesses who were seeking to enter new markets.

Big companies always want to acquire small companies, so with Caribbean Export supporting stuff like this, it gives us the freedom to create without the pressure of having to sign away your career so quickly. It gives us a chance to be independent because being independent is expensive. People keep say don’t sign major deals but if you are independent you have to look for hundreds of thousands to spend. With stuff like this you get a chance to get over some of the hurdles, because the development and creation process is very expensive. To see if the artist is good enough is expensive. and with Caribbean Export’s support we were able to go through that process in a reasonable way. The support was needed and the artists are extremely appreciative, Trevor Pretty insisted.

KORU GREEN Limited, based in Trinidad and Tobago, is fast becoming a leading player in the creative industry, providing globally competitive services as management and entertainment consultant specialists for cultural practitioners to commercialise and monetise their creative content.

Led by managing director Keron Niles, Koru Green Ltd which was formed in 2017 has already established itself apart from other talent companies by developing a unique service within the creative sector, primarily focused on transforming cultural goods and services into sustainable livelihoods.

MARKETS
The company’s focus is to assist creative professionals who wish to find new markets for the content they produce and/or to expand the consumption of their works within markets in which they are already present.

One of the success stories from its stable of clients is Freetown Collective, a six- piece band made up of talented musicians, whose lead vocalist hails from an area called Belmont (formerly known as Freetown) in Trinidad which has produced an eclectic sound using a unique blend of Caribbean rhythm and urban pop that is riveting, relevant and authentic.

While Trinidad is widely known for its famous Carnival in February, Keron was keen to point out that Freetown Collective is not a carnival music band, but rather a dynamic musical ensemble which is not wedded to one specific genre.

There has been a strong increase in demand for Caribbean music in Europe as seen by the rise in popularity for Caribbean artists and music at festivals such as Summerjam reggae festival in Germany, Ibiza Soca festival in Spain and Reggae Sun Ska Festival in France, along with many others.

Last September Keron Niles and Koru Green Ltd participated in the Caribbean Export sponsored CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum and Authentic Caribbean Expo in Frankfurt, Germany and he felt it was good exposure to the dynamics of the live music market in Europe.

He said: “The Caribbean Export Business Forum provided me the opportunity to meet with some stakeholders who were interested in the music and also allowed me to do some onsite marketing. It also gave me a better understanding of how we can best gain more exposure for Caribbean talent in Europe.”

The CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum was a strategic event produced by Caribbean Export which unveiled international opportunities for Caribbean artists and entertainers, by establishing win-win partnerships between EU private sector representatives and CARIFORUM participants eager to gain access to larger international markets.

UNIVERSAL
Keron said: “The music of Freetown Collective appeals to both the deeply personal and wider universal concerns evidenced by its critically acclaimed debut album ‘Born in Darkness’. It’s not only catchy and relatable, but it also helps us to navigate what it means to be human.”

Keron, however, says that Freetown Collective’s new singles ‘Feel The Love’ and ‘We Bad’ released earlier this month was the first time the band produced a headline track for Carnival. “We have had a few soca songs before, but this is our most formidable attempt at really doing carnival music and the response has been amazing”, he said.

Looking to the international scene, the Koru Green CEO said one of the most important things he is doing now is getting traction for the band in the overseas market.

STRATEGIES
“We are happy that Caribbean music is spreading and becoming more global but it also creates an interesting challenge whereby we have to become even more innovative in trying to get home-grown talent to the international market.

“My job at Koru Green is helping the band to get their message out to the world. Musicians don’t want to have to think of marketing strategies or to conduct the research that is required for them to compete in a global market place, we take on all of that responsibility while they concentrate on creating the music people will love.

DEMOGRAPHIC
“The management service we provide covers such things as conducting research and providing marketing services that would help to drive increased bookings, along with finding out what needs to be done in order to make our music receptive in each market, what are our legal and tax obligations and to source joint ventures and publishing deals.

“We also look at music sales data and the sales data for our live gigs and analyse the demographic trends of our core supporter base. There are not many companies in the Caribbean that provide the services we do at Koru Green”, Keron enthused.

Koru Green Ltd also provides bespoke management consulting services for creative professionals, including musicians, dancers and fi lm makers, that include but are not limited to: Press relations; administrative support (inclusive of accounting and taxation); digital and physical product retail marketing; brand monetisation and creative product marketing strategy development and execution.

This article was originally published on The Voice as part of a series featuring Caribbean entrepreneurs and businesses sponsored by the Caribbean Export Development Agency.

IN JUST four years after Sophia Stone first came up with the idea of starting a natural herb tea company for the local market in Trinidad and Tobago, she has turned Caribbean Cure into an award-winning international business which now has its sights on the European market.

Caribbean Cure has already got its foot in the door through leveraging support provided by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) and the European Union.

Through participating in Caribbean Export/EU funded programmes Caribbean Cure were able to attend SIAL, Paris where they were shortlisted for a Product Innovation Award in 2018.

MANUFACTURING
They were back most recently in September of last year for Caribbean Export’s CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum and Authentic Caribbean Expo, in Frankfurt Germany where over 60 Caribbean companies showcased their products to the European audience.

This gave Caribbean Cure the opportunity to be featured in the UK Coffee Expo in November through connections which were forged in Frankfurt.

Commenting on the European push, Sophia said: “This year’s work is centred on how we are going to launch in the European market. We have done all the hard work of sorting out the manufacturing and the supply chain to sell our tea formulation using organic ingredients which are really healthy and wonderful, so we are now looking for a partner who will be interested in distributing for us.”

While Caribbean Cure was initially Sophia’s idea of using nature’s herbs and bush teas to promote health and wellness, it wasn’t until she partnered with a friend and confidant Stacy Seeterram, a tea enthusiast in her own right, who embraced the vision of making these healing remedies more efficacious, convenient and attractive to today’s consumer.

In a few short months Stone and Seeterram created five tea blends which were to gain Caribbean Cure official recognition as producers of world class teas. This was achieved by winning bronze medals at the internationally recognised Global Tea Championships, hosted by the World Tea Expo in Colorado, for their Tropical Relaxation blend in November 2017 and again for Island Breeze in January 2018.

Sophia’s passion for keeping Caribbean Cure teas unique and authentic lies in the processing of the product.

“I wanted to honour our long history in the Caribbean of using herbs and bush teas. The tea leaves are slow-dried to maximise nutrient content and each blend is also a delicate balance, formulated to create a memorable and unique experience in every cup,” she said.

JAPAN
There is also a little bit of history brewed in each cup of Caribbean Cure tea. Island Breeze, a delicate blend that includes cardamom pods and white tea, is a tribute to Sophia’s Afghan/Canadian heritage, and borrows from one of her family recipes; while Carnival Oasis with its inclusion of mauby bark, cinnamon and clove, transports Stacy – a Trinidadian, with roots woven throughout the Caribbean – back to her childhood as it conjures memories of her grandmother’s “magical” blends.

Since August this year, Caribbean Cure was launched in Japan, making it the first tea company from Trinidad and Tobago to break into the Asian market. An obviously proud Sophia said: “The reason they are interested in our products is because of the health and wellness aspect of it. We are unique in the blend of herbs and natural healing ingredients paired with aromatic flowers and spices in our teas.”

This article was originally published on The Voice as part of a series featuring Caribbean entrepreneurs and businesses sponsored by the Caribbean Export Development Agency.

Please note that the offices of Caribbean Export will be closed from Monday, December 23, 2019 and will re-open on Thursday, January 2, 2020. 

Wishing you Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year! 🎄 🎁 🔔 🤶

With the global demand for fine flavor cocoa increasing, one Caribbean company wants to be the model for other regional cocoa farmers to follow.

Overcoming the current challenges facing the cocoa sector in the Caribbean region requires rethinking the current economic model, and this is a project being undertaken by the Trinidad & Tobago Fine Cocoa Company which was established as a public-private partnership with the aim of rehabilitating the cocoa sector. According to the company founder, Ashley Parasram, “the focus is not just looking at the basic economic return, it is also looking at what we need to do to stimulate the sector, remove barriers to trade and create brand awareness to develop opportunities further.”

As the raw materials, production process and marketing of fine flavor cocoa to consumers is complicated, Parasram believes that transforming the Fine Flavor Cocoa Industry in the Caribbean will take five to ten years. Critical to this transformation is developing a sustainable economic model, and that requires increased cooperation and sharing of information amongst cocoa farmers. To aid this effort, Parasram has undertaken site visits to meet with cocoa farmers across the Caribbean region including Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Mexico. He plans to eventually visit all the major producers of fine flavor cocoa in the Caribbean region to document their unique strengths, and this also includes Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Jamaica, and Venezuela.

The goal from these assessment visits is to create a roadmap to build and ultimately leverage partnerships to educate the consumer thereby increasing demand, reducing the number of intermediaries in the global value chain, lending to increasing profits for local farmers and also work to overcome the operational challenges in some countries to ensure consistency. These operational challenges include expensive electricity, lack of processing capacity, lack of distribution logistics or packaging and technical labeling skills.

Simplification of the global value chain is necessary to increase profits for cocoa farmers. Using Trinidad & Tobago as an example, there are typically eight participants in the cocoa global value chain including the cocoa farmer, fermenter, exporter, buyer, importer, processor, chocolatier and then the retailer who sells to the consumer. And with the retailer accounting for up to 30% of the cost, there is very little profit for the other seven in the global value chain controlled by a small number of large trading and processing companies. This control by a few companies often ends up with cocoa farmers achieving minimal profit for their harvest. This imbalance needs to change in the Caribbean to support the investment required to increase production and capture more of the fine flavor cocoa market valued at US$4 billion annually.

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If ever there was a case study of how the storied past of the Caribbean region is able to contribute to building blocks of successful brand building, then SMAKS is it.

The Trinidad and Tobago based company whose tea products have successfully managed to harness the appeal and mystique of the Caribbean and embody its essence, history and culture has already received the ‘seal ‘ of recognition. when the Queen of England writes to thank you for your tea, you know you’re on to something good.

Not that the brand’s creator, Kiran Akal ever had any doubts. His foray into the luxury tea market and has driven from the start by personal enthusiasm, a passionate love of the beverage, and a conviction that he has something new and exciting to offer to tea-lovers everywhere – including Buckingham Palace! In a world where so many products go for the lowest common denominator, his company, SMAKS Luxury Group (Bespoke Tea) takes a «quality over quantity» approach. «Yes, we are more expensive, but we are not concerned with mass production,» he declares. «teas are really a craft , not an industry.

Akal puts his money where his mouth is: he drinks about 14 cups of tea , » from the time I get up, to when I go to bed.» The love affair started when he was 10, and blossomed when he went to university in London and discovered the world of fine, loose-leaf teas. It served him in good stead many years later, when he was brainstorming with his sister about a way to re-brand his mother’s 31 – year-old business: the original SMAKS, a store in Trinidad and Tobago that sold luxury goods, including fine crystal and porcelain. » My sister suggested I should sell tea, because I drank so much of it,» he recalls. It was a no-brainer.

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Economic growth in the Caribbean region is forecasted to increase from 0.9 percent in 2017 to 2.0 percent in 2018 with the prospects to increase further to 2.6 percent in 2019. However, these targets can only be achieved if the Caribbean region can improve its fundamental industries amidst global geopolitical occurrences to keep abreast with rapidly changing technology. Presently, Caribbean countries focus mainly on the provision of tourism services and the production of minerals and agriculture crops as the main economic activities. Many of these Caribbean territories possess extensive history of partaking in global agricultural value chains such as sugarcane, bananas, cocoa, cotton, citrus, ornamentals, coconut and coffee. These value chains have contributed significantly to the development of the Caribbean economies and in some economies agriculture is still the largest contributor to GDP, despite losing competitive advantages to global markets.

The uniqueness and difference in biogeography of the regions’ archipelago has allowed for the exploitation of various agricultural commodities, which have contributed to the brand of tropical colours, flavors, and tastes that are unique to the Caribbean region. However, the Caribbean region’s agricultural sector has suffered tremendous setbacks over recent decades due to global trade tariffs, climatic events and loss of preferential treatments to European markets. Low growth in output and high debt to GDP ratios is a characteristic of most of the countries in the region that remain susceptible to external shocks mainly in the form of natural disasters, for example, hurricanes, floods, droughts, volcanoes and earthquakes.

Cannabis and the Global economy

The global business of cannabis is currently valued at more than $400 billion USD and compounding each year as the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes is increasing and more traditional pharmaceutical companies are voyaging into the industry to increase the viability
and long-term sustainability. Twenty-eight states in the U.S and the District of Columbia now have approved medical cannabis programmes, while eight states plus the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for recreational consumption. Although medical cannabis is allowed throughout Canada, the government is moving towards fully legalizing recreational use by April 1, 2019.
In Australia, companies involved in the cultivation, production and research of medical cannabis have observed their average market shares increase by 130 per cent in 2017. Europe is set to become the largest medical cannabis market in the world with a potential market of over 140
million active cannabis consumers. Germany has taken the lead by launching the first legal and regulated medical cannabis market in Europe with several other countries announcing legislative amendments to advance the legal cannabis agenda.

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