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

ITC en het Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) organiseerden op 22-24 november 2022 in Bridgetown, Barbados, een bootcamp over ‘Access to Green Finance’. Het bootcamp omvatte workshops en business matchmaking sessies voor micro-, kleine en middelgrote ondernemingen uit Guyana, Barbados en Saint Lucia. De workshop had tot doel het concurrentievermogen van het mkb te verbeteren door hun kennis en bereidheid om toegang te krijgen tot groene financiering en praktijken inzake efficiënt gebruik van hulpbronnen en circulariteit te vergroten, met de nadruk op de invoering van zonne-energie.

Workshop toegang tot financiering

De eerste twee dagen van de workshop werden geleid door Access to Finance consultant Mr. Christopher McGann en omvatten een mix van interactieve sessies.

Op de eerste dag verkenden de deelnemers de uitdagingen en kansen van groene/duurzame financiering en de relevante SDG-doelstellingen van de VN en criteria op het gebied van milieu, maatschappij en bestuur (ESG). Ze leerden ook over de Credit Risk Abatement Facility (CRAF), gefaciliteerd door de financieel controleur van het CARICOM Development Fund (CDF), de heer Wayne Vitalis. CRAF is een gedeeltelijke kredietgarantiefaciliteit die een stimulans vormt voor aanvullende leningen aan het MKB door financiële instellingen voor initiatieven op het gebied van hernieuwbare energie/energie-efficiëntie in CARICOM. Tenslotte kregen zij een inleiding over “Project Viability and Financing Types” door mevrouw Debbie-Anne Jemmott, Investment Analyst van het Enterprise Growth Fund Ltd..

Op de tweede dag werden de belangrijkste resultaten gepresenteerd van de regionale landschapsstudie over toegang tot financiering in opdracht van de GreenToCompete Hub in het Caribisch gebied, gevolgd door een interactieve paneldiscussie over de risico’s en mogelijkheden van groene financiering voor het mkb in het Caribisch gebied met de volgende deskundige sprekers:

• Barbados Fund Access – Ms. Nadia Wilkie, Project Development Officer
• CIBC First Caribbean International Bank – de heer Ray Ward, Associate – Investment Banking
• Enterprise Growth Fund – mevrouw Debbie-Ann Jemmott, beleggingsanalist
• CARICOM-ontwikkelingsfonds – Dr. Laverne MacFarlane, hoofdeconoom

Door deze discussie konden de deelnemers bedrijven een dieper inzicht krijgen in de beschikbare diensten van deze instellingen en de vereisten om toegang te krijgen tot fondsen voor de uitvoering van groene projecten.

Speed dating en matchmaking

Om meer te weten te komen over groene financieringsmogelijkheden werden speeddate- en matchmakingsessies georganiseerd met financiële instellingen die groene diensten en producten aanbieden, zoals Barbados Fund Access, Enterprise Growth Fund Limited, CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, Signia Globe Financial Inc, Republic Bank Barbados Limited, CARICOM Development Fund en de Bloom Cleantech Cluster van Export Barbados. Deelnemende bedrijven en financiers bespraken mogelijkheden om toegang te krijgen tot financiering voor de uitvoering van grondstofzuinige en circulaire projecten en het verkrijgen van duurzaamheidscertificaten, aangezien veel van de aanwezige bedrijven door de Hub over deze onderwerpen zijn gecoacht.

Bezoek aan fotovoltaïsch park

Op de laatste dag van de workshop bezochten vertegenwoordigers van het bedrijf een installatie van een zonnepark om met eigen ogen de toepassing van zon-PV in een schapenhouderij te zien en te leren over de financiële levensvatbaarheid en duurzaamheid ervan. Het bezoek gaf inzicht in de verschillende mogelijkheden van solar farming. De installateur benadrukte ook het soort gewassen dat ter plaatse kan worden verbouwd en de alternatieve middelen van bestaan (bv. schapenhouderij) die mogelijk parallel kunnen worden ontwikkeld.

Oorspronkelijk gepubliceerd door ITC.

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