Caribbean marketing assistance

Mid-term PES covers the period 9/83-12/84 and is based on an attached special evaluation (XD-AAR-462-A). The project was modified in 6/84 to establish in-country offices to house locally hired coordinators who would monitor program activities. Experience in the first year of the project had shown that part-time voluntary participation was unreliable and that salaried local coordinators on each island were necessary to facilitate continuous contact and timely follow-up. In the past 9 months the project has begun to yield the results expected at its inception. A trade mission to Albany, New York in 1984 resulted in some $216,000 in orders, some of which have already been filled. As a result of the varying levels of development in the three Caribbean territories chosen, the project has taken on a different character in each territory. The major focus of the Barbados/Capital District program is to provide TA and marketing contacts to medium-sized manufacturers; of the St. Lucia/Rockland County Program, to provide TA and direct marketing services to small producers in the handicrafts and agro-processing industries; of the Dominica/Dutchess County program, training related to business development on the island. Lessons learned are that: (1) to have any chance of success, a marketing project needs needs full-time, onsite agents (not merely part-time volunteers) and the timely and continuous allocation of sufficient resources; and (2) prospective exporting countries must have both management and production capabilities and an understanding of import-export regulations by all parties concerned. Action decisions are that the Regional Development Office/Caribbean continue to support the project at current monthly rates of expenditure and that the U.S./Caribbean partnered Economic Development Sub-Committees develop realistic activity plans for the period 4/85-12/85.