Bartlett moves to plug tourism import leak

CORAL SPRING, Trelawny — Warning that the region is losing billions of dollars in potential earnings by failing to adequately connect its farmers and agro-processors with the tourism industry, portfolio minister Edmund Bartlett is calling for a major overhaul with the establishment of a Caribbean Tourism Agricultural Logistics Centre among a raft of proposed initiatives. He made the call last Friday, the final for the six-day Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2026 held at Ocean Coral Spring Hotel in Trelawny. His comments came during the plenary session on ‘Practical Building Blocks for Export Expansion’.

The proposed Caribbean Tourism Agricultural Logistics Centre, Bartlett said, should go beyond conventional storage. “It’s not a warehouse we’re looking for here, but what we’re seeking is a repository of all the supplies from within the Caribbean area, [for example] what Barbados provides, what Guyana provides, what Jamaica provides,” he said. The facility, he explained, would accommodate fresh agricultural commodities as well as processed products — including juices, nectars, jams, and jellies — and facilitate their distribution throughout the region.

Other measures he proposed include establishing a dedicated tourism agricultural loan programme for small farmers, and harmonising food and agricultural standards across the Caribbean. Bartlett also wants Jamaica’s Agri- Linkages Exchange (ALEX) platform, which links farmers with tourism buyers, expanded into a Caribbeanwide system. “We know the example we’ve had in four years — over $2 billion of trade between small farmers and hoteliers,” he said of ALEX.

Under the proposed regional platform, farmers in one Caribbean country could access buyers in another, with information on prices, quantities, availability, and delivery schedules made accessible to facilitate transactions. Meanwhile, Bartlett said the tourism agricultural loan programme would be specifically designed to help small farmers achieve the consistency, quantity and quality required by hotels, while continuing to produce distinctive crops that can enhance the visitor experience. He pointed to Jamaica’s experience, saying the Government placed $1 billion in EXIM Bank to support a lending programme, offering up to $25 million to smalland medium-size businesses at a 4.5 per cent interest rate, repayable over five years.