Browse Data and Analysis

FAS/Nairobi forecasts a 19.8 percent drop in Kenya’s MY 2025/26 sugar production to 650,000 metric tons, from 810,000 metric ton (MT) in MY 2024/25, on an expected reduction in harvested area and lower sugar extraction rates.

Production for Jamaica sugar is projected to fall to 33,000 metric tons (MT) for marketing year (MY) October 2025 to September 2026, consistent with the ongoing downward trend observed in the industry.

This report highlights the food processing industry, its drivers, key players, and market landscape in the Caribbean Basin. The region relies heavily on imports, and the United States is the largest supplier of food ingredients.

On Friday, March 7, 2025, Kenya’s Court of Appeal put a hold on the trade and cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) products until an appeal filed by the Kenya Peasants League is fully heard.

FAS Nairobi forecasts Kenya’s marketing year 2025/26 corn production to increase by 15.8 percent due to a return to normal weather, following an unusually dry year.

Jamaica’s pork market is valued at an estimated $40 million per year. While domestic production meets household and retail demand, it falls short of supplying the total market.

In 2024, Kenya’s avocado production declined by 11.2 percent to 562 thousand metric tons (TMT), driven by reduced rainfall.

Kenya's dairy sector is one of the most advanced in East Africa, and the second largest in Africa in terms of herd size. The industry remains an important part of the Kenyan agricultural economy, contributing 17 percent to agricultural GDP and 3.8 percent of the total national GDP. The sector is still largely informal, with only 15 percent of total milk processed in 2023.

The hotel, restaurant, and institutional (HRI) sector in Jamaica continues to thrive, driven by a rapidly expanding tourism sector. In 2023, global agricultural exports to Jamaica slightly exceeded $1 billion with the United States supplying $606 million of that total.

With the notable exception of Bt. cotton, biotech products are not allowed to be produced, imported, or marketed in Kenya. On October 30, 2024, Kenya’s High Court is expected to make a ruling on the biotechnology case challenging the production and trade in genetically engineered (GE) agricultural products.

U.S. agricultural exports to Jamaica in 2023 totaled approximately $601 million, which makes the United States a key trading partner for the Caribbean nation. Currently, some U.S. exported livestock feed inputs and intermediate foods to Jamaica are produced using biotechnological methods.

This report outlines the requirement for exporting food and agricultural products to Jamaica. There were no major changes to these requirements in 2024.