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Over a dozen Caribbean countries are Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. With an aim toward meeting their obligations under this agreement, many have been working toward establishing their National Biosafety Frameworks for many years.

Sales in the Caribbean Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional (HRI) food service sector increased by 11 percent in 2022.

Sales in the Caribbean retail grocery sector decreased by 1.7 percent in 2022, primarily as the result of closing retail outlets in the French West Indies.

The Caribbean’s rebound from the economic downturn induced by the COVID-19 pandemic has been slow. Anxious for better times, the region is looking ahead at 2023 and hoping for improved tourist arrivals that will spark a return to more robust economic growth.

Over the past 11 years (2004-2013) U.S. exports to the Caribbean Island Basin of consumer-oriented products and fish products have averaged over 10 percent annual growth.

Biotech regulation has been virtually non-existent in the Caribbean. That may change in the years ahead as twelve Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries move forward with UN Biosafety Frameworks.