KINGSTON, Jamaica – Haiti is, more often than not, dismissed as a viable market for exports from Jamaica and is usually not thought of as a possible opportunity for Jamaican companies to establish and do business there.
The reasons voiced for ignoring Haiti are numerous, including: it is politically unstable, it is just a mass of poor people with little spending power (the poorest in the Western Hemisphere), there are logistics problems as everything has to go through Miami, and they speak French patois. The discouraging complexities seemed to be multiplied with the devastation of Port-au-Prince by the January 2010 earthquake.
Frequently overlooked is the fact that Haiti is a market of 10 million people, is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and, importantly, many local and foreign companies conduct profitable business in Haiti. Jamaican companies would be minded not to ignore this opportunity in one of our geographically closest neighbours.
