According to the tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, Jamaican small farmers will sell about $500 million worth of their produce to the island’s hotels, via a trading platform called ALEX – Agri Linkages Exchange.
It will be less than last year, when, according to the minister, Alex facilitated nearly $1 billion in trade. The decline, in part, is because of storms and floods in the summer that hampered farm production. The industry is still recovering.
Tourist arrival also softened because of travel advisories by the United States, warning its citizens against travel to the island because of crime. Americans account for nearly 70 per cent of Jamaica’s tourists.
Nonetheless, on its face, a $1-billion dollar market…
