Haitian cocoa processor Choko Lakay is steadily building an international presence, demonstrating how targeted export development support can help Caribbean firms strengthen competitiveness, improve market readiness, and access new buyers. Founded in 2016, the company has grown from a small operation with three employees into a business employing 12 people, while working closely with cocoa farming communities and advancing a value-added approach to Haiti’s cocoa sector. Its business model is rooted in maximising value across the cocoa chain, with a strong focus on sustainability, product innovation, and community impact.  

Caribbean Export has supported Choko Lakay through a range of interventions spanning investment promotion, capacity building activities, standards and certification support, and trade promotion activities. The company participated in the Caribbean AgTech Summit (2021), SIAL Paris 2022 under the 11th EDF Regional Private Sector Development Programme, Voluntary Sustainability Standards training (2023), Virtual E-commerce Accelerator Programme II online training (2023), DHL GoTrade’s The Art of Logistics (2024), the Facilitating Trade and Investment between the Caribbean and Africa webinar (2024), Standards and Certification Webinar: EU Market Entry – Understanding the Sustainability Standards and Certifications (2025), and Agroalimentaria 2025. Together, these initiatives helped position the firm to better understand export requirements, strengthen its business systems, and engage international markets. 

A major turning point came with Choko Lakay’s participation in SIAL Paris 2022, where the company was among 14 firms selected to showcase under Caribbean Export support. According to co-owner Brisly Germéus, the trade fair gave the company critical exposure to the realities of the global marketplace, including buyer expectations around requirements, standards, packaging, and labelling. It also created valuable opportunities to connect with investors, importers, distributors, ingredient suppliers, and other commercial partners. The company notes that this experience directly influenced improvements to its packaging and presentation, helping align its products more closely with international standards and increasing buyer interest. 

“SIAL enabled us to discover the global market—its requirements, standards, packaging and labelling. We also met investors, importers, distributors, ingredient suppliers and other partners. As a result, we saw growing demand first in Europe and then in North America.” 

The impact of that international exposure has continued to unfold. Following its participation in Caribbean Export-supported trade and capacity-building activities, Choko Lakay reported stronger interest in its 100% natural cocoa products from overseas buyers. More recently, participation in Agroalimentaria 2025 generated commercial interest from Martinique, Canada, the United States of America, and The Bahamas. The company has since secured orders from buyers in the USA and Canada, while retail buyers in Martinique are exploring distribution arrangements. Choko Lakay now sells both directly and through e-commerce, widening its reach and improving access to new customer segments. 

The company has also benefited from the broader ecosystem-building effects of trade promotion. Relationships formed through these platforms have led to new collaborations, including engagement with Café 509, where shared networks, workspaces, and distributors are helping to unlock further opportunities. These connections underscore the value of Caribbean Export’s programming not only in linking firms to buyers, but also in fostering commercial partnerships that can support scaling and market entry. 

Beyond export growth, Choko Lakay’s business has a strong development impact. The company is committed to strengthening the cocoa/chocolate value chain and currently works with approximately 500 cocoa producers, the majority of whom are women. The company also highlights its wider sustainability ambitions, including a zero-waste production model, efforts to improve traceability, and ongoing work toward Fairtrade certification with FLOCERT and organic certification with ECOCERT. These efforts reflect the type of resilience, innovation, and inclusive growth that Caribbean Export seeks to foster through its SME support programmes.  

While demand is rising, Choko Lakay has identified production capacity as its main constraint. The company reports receiving requests from markets such as the United Kingdom and France, but notes that limited equipment and financing are restricting its ability to scale output and fulfil larger export orders. For this reason, continued support through MSME assistance programmes remains critical to helping the business convert market interest into sustained export growth. 

Choko Lakay’s journey illustrates the importance of sustained, multi-layered support in helping Caribbean MSMEs move from potential to performance. Through Caribbean Export’s interventions in trade promotion, standards, logistics, digital visibility, and investment readiness, the company has strengthened its export capability, improved its market positioning, and opened new commercial pathways. As it continues to scale, Choko Lakay stands as an example of how Caribbean firms can leverage strategic support to build internationally competitive brands while generating tangible benefits for local producers and communities.

Read more here: Annual Results Report 2025 | Caribbean Export

When Guyana’s Beharry Group and Jamaica’s Amber Group agreed to launch a new joint venture in technology and cybersecurity, the story started not in a boardroom, but in a crowded conference hall at the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF) 2025 in Montego Bay. 

“I’ve been to every CIF since it started,” says Anand Harilall, Chief Strategy Officer of Beharry Group. “Based on the actual outcomes, I’ll say Jamaica was the best one – we got a partnership out of that.”  

Beharry Group is one of Guyana’s oldest and most diversified conglomerates, with more than 87 years in business and operations across six industry verticals including financial services, manufacturing, quick-service restaurants, mobility, energy services and now technology. As Group Strategy Officer, Harilall is responsible for charting the group’s path to 2030 and driving its ambition to become “a leading conglomerate in the region and beyond.”  

That growth vision made CIF a strategic priority. Harilall describes the Forum as a place where “all the key stakeholders are in one space” – development banks, investors, corporates and governments – creating rich opportunities to network, explore partnerships and showcase what Beharry is doing in high-growth markets like Guyana.  

The pivotal moment came during a CIF session on digital transformation led by Amber Group founder Dushyant Savadia. Digital transformation is a core pillar of Beharry’s 2030 strategy, so Harilall rearranged another meeting to hear the presentation. “A lot of what he said and what his business was doing was very much aligned with our business and the different industries that we’re in,” he recalls. After the session, “there were a slew of people waiting to engage him,” but Harilall “jumped the queue,” delivered a “minute and a half pitch,” and walked away with Savadia’s mobile number and an agreement to keep talking.  

What followed was classic CIF follow-through: virtual meetings, market visits and deep discussions about strategy, values and fit. “What’s critical with partnerships is alignment, shared values,” Harilall notes. Those conversations culminated in a joint venture focused on deploying Amber’s technology solutions both within the Beharry Group and across the Guyanese and wider Caribbean market.  

The collaboration is designed to accelerate Beharry’s own digital transformation—rolling out tools such as fleet and asset tracking, operational efficiency platforms and other enterprise solutions across its 14 operating companies—while positioning the new venture as a technology and cybersecurity solutions provider for government and private sector clients. With Caribbean and Latin American markets “highly susceptible to cyber-attacks,” Harilall sees a clear opportunity to strengthen resilience in areas such as e-government, health, education and financial services, building on Amber’s experience working with the Government of Jamaica.  

For Harilall, the partnership is a textbook example of what CIF is meant to achieve. The deal did not close in the conference room, but CIF created the environment, access and momentum that made it possible. “Sometimes the outcomes might be immediate; sometimes they happen over time through connections,” he says. “But if you weren’t there, you might not have been able to connect.”  

As Caribbean Export marks its 30th anniversary, the Beharry–Amber story stands out as a tangible result of the Caribbean Investment Forum’s convening power—turning a conference encounter into a regional partnership that will help build the Caribbean’s digital and cybersecurity backbone. 

Read more here: Annual Results Report 2025 | Caribbean Export

L’ITC et l’Agence pour le développement des exportations des Caraïbes (CEDA) ont organisé un atelier sur l’accès au financement vert du 22 au 24 novembre 2022 à Bridgetown, Barbade. Le camp d’entraînement comprenait des ateliers et des séances de jumelage d’entreprises ciblant les micro, petites et moyennes entreprises (MPME) de Guyane, de Barbade et de Sainte-Lucie. L’atelier visait à renforcer la compétitivité des MPME en améliorant leurs connaissances et leur préparation à l’accès aux financements verts et aux pratiques d’efficacité des ressources et de circularité, en mettant l’accent sur l’adoption de l’énergie solaire.

Atelier sur l’accès au financement

Les deux premiers jours de l’atelier étaient dirigés par le consultant en accès au financement, M. Christopher McGann, et comprenaient un mélange de sessions interactives.

Le premier jour, les participants ont exploré les défis et les opportunités de la finance verte et durable ainsi que les objectifs des Nations Unies en matière de développement durable et les critères environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance (ESG). Ils ont également appris à connaître le mécanisme de réduction du risque de crédit (CRAF), facilité par le contrôleur financier du Fonds de développement de la CARICOM (FDC), M. Wayne Vitalis. Le CRAF est un mécanisme de garantie partielle de crédit qui incite les institutions financières à accorder des prêts supplémentaires aux MPME pour des initiatives en matière d’énergie renouvelable et d’efficacité énergétique dans la CARICOM. Enfin, ils ont été initiés à la « viabilité des projets et aux types de financement » par Mme Debbie-Anne Jemmott, analyste des investissements de l’Enterprise Growth Fund Ltd.

Le deuxième jour, les principaux résultats de l’étude régionale sur l’accès au financement commandée par le Hub GreenToCompete dans les Caraïbes ont été présentés, suivis d’une table ronde interactive sur les risques et les opportunités de financement vert pour les MPME dans les Caraïbes avec les intervenants experts suivants :

• Barbados Fund Access – Mme Nadia Wilkie, responsable du développement de projets
• CIBC First Caribbean International Bank – M. Ray Ward, associé – Banque d’investissement
• Enterprise Growth Fund – Mme Debbie-Ann Jemmott, analyste des investissements
• Fonds de développement de la CARICOM – Dr. Laverne MacFarlane, Économiste principal

Grâce à cette discussion, les entreprises participantes ont pu avoir un aperçu plus approfondi des services disponibles fournis par ces institutions et des exigences pour accéder aux fonds afin de mettre en œuvre des projets verts.

Speed dating et matchmaking

Pour en savoir plus sur les options de financement vertes, des séances de speed dating et de matchmaking ont été organisées avec des institutions financières proposant des services et des produits verts, telles que Barbados Fund Access, Enterprise Growth Fund Limited, CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, Signia Globe Financial Inc, Republic Bank Barbados Limited, CARICOM Development Fund, et le Bloom Cleantech Cluster d’Export Barbados. Les entreprises participantes et les financiers ont discuté des possibilités d’accès au financement pour mettre en œuvre des projets circulaires et économes en ressources et obtenir des certifications de durabilité, car de nombreuses entreprises présentes ont été coachées par le Hub sur ces sujets.

Visite d’une ferme solaire photovoltaïque

Le dernier jour de l’atelier, les représentants de l’entreprise ont visité une ferme solaire pour voir de près l’application de l’énergie solaire photovoltaïque installée dans un élevage de moutons et s’informer sur sa viabilité financière et sa durabilité. La visite a permis de se faire une idée de l’éventail des possibilités de l’agriculture solaire. L’installateur a également souligné le type de cultures qui peuvent être pratiquées sur le site et les moyens de subsistance alternatifs (par exemple, l’élevage de moutons) qui peuvent éventuellement être développés en parallèle.

Publié à l’origine par l’ITC.

GreenToCompete Hub Bootcamp – Connecting small businesses to green financiers and solutions in the Caribbean – GreenToCompete