Cuba Strengthens Trade Links with the Caribbean

Caribbean Export Development Agency participates with great expectations in the XXXI International Fair of Havana (FIHAV 2013), with a variety of products for agriculture, food, cosmetics, among other products.

Karina de Pool, expert on development for private property, reported to Trabajadores newspaper, it is an agency for the development of Cariforum countries, those members of Caricom and the Dominican Republic.

The trade group is devoted to promote the exportation of the most potential products of the Caribbean; as well as the investment possibilities of those countries who would like to invest in the region.

Barbados, Saint Luci­a, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are the countries represented in Caribbean Export in FIHAV 2013, and they are exhibiting organic fertilizers, fertilizers, agricultural products (sauces, seasonings, preserved fruits), as well as glues, woods and aluminum windows in the construction sphere. In cosmetics they are exhibiting capillary products for the skin, drugs, and also sports uniforms from the textile field.

Karina de Pool explained the agricultural-industrial products are the most wanted, as well as cosmetics and capillaries. “Most of the people gather in these stands, people want to have details about them, and many know about treatments, dyes, and skin creams from the Dominican Republic, because a great number of Cubans live in this nation, they informally bring them, and they recognize them for their quality.

Organic fertilizers are excellently produced in a factory in Jamaica, de Pool said. This is the first time are promoted in Cuba. “Right now, there is a boom is all organic productions, mainly in the production of fruits and ornamental plants.”

Caribbean Export Development Agency is in FIHAV 2013 for the third time. Some of its enterprises have already signed contracts and concrete sales; meanwhile others are waiting for better possibilities to exchange.

Participating in this fair is a way to strengthen the relations with Cuba. The goal is to keep on working as much as possible with the entire region and support them so they can really carry out commercial exchanges. “Cuba is obviously an important market,” she noted.

The agency has three offices: the most important of them is in Barbados, a sub regional one is in the Dominican Republic. Recently, it has been opened a third one in Haiti for a specific project between the nations above mentioned.

Karina de Pool is happy with her participation in FIHAV 2013. She highlighted the sympathy of the Cuban people, and how they are like the Dominicans either in what they eat and the way they talk. “We are neighbors and it seems there is no sea between us,” she noted.