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The resumption of travel amid a waning COVID-19 pandemic is breathing much-needed fresh air into the Caribbean Hotel Restaurant Institutional (HRI) food service sector. Yet in 2021 sector sales still fell short of pre-pandemic levels.

The Caribbean retail grocery sector continued on the upswing in 2021. The region increased its imports of consumer-oriented agricultural products by 14 percent in 2021, reaching an estimated $2.45 billion. The outlook calls for moderate growth as the region continues on the path to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and markets such as Guyana and Turks and Caicos Islands emerge as larger players in the regional context.

Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic (both in terms of public health and economic performance), the tourism-dependent Caribbean is anxiously awaiting a return to more normal times characterized by growing tourist arrivals, which in many ways are the economic lifeblood of the region.

Biosafety regulatory efforts in the Caribbean remain stalled, and it is yet to be seen whether countries can regain the will and secure the international financing required to fully implement their National Biosafety Frameworks in a harmonized manner.

Eager to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind it, the Caribbean is doing all it can to attract visitors and kick-start its tourism sector in 2021.

Caribbean imports of consumer-oriented products shrunk from $2.3 billion in 2019 to $2.1 billion in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet Caribbean retail grocery sales grew by an estimated 6 percent during the same period.

After exporting a record-high $1.1 billion in consumer-oriented agricultural products to the Caribbean in 2019, U.S. suppliers saw the COVID-19 pandemic take a toll on Caribbean demand...

The Caribbean tourism industry and the hotel/restaurant food service sector have been significantly impacted in both the near and long-term as a result of COVID-19.

Many Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States have undertaken efforts to comply with their obligations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) to the Convention on Biological Diversity....

This report outlines Barbados’ certification requirements and includes an Export Certificate Matrix as well as examples of select export certificates.

While Barbados is a relatively open market for most U.S. agricultural products, U.S. suppliers need to pay special attention to export certification requirements for a large number of items....

In 2018, the United States exported over $1 Billion in U.S. consumer-oriented products to the Caribbean Basin.