Jamaica Emergency EXPORT programme needed! We have tried Crash Programmes for 50 years! Time to try real development.

Competing In Our Weaknesses While Giving Away Our Strengths;  How To Reverse This Path To Poverty
It is past time that Jamaica used the best tasting coconut water in the world to maximize a potential that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) identified over a decade ago.  How do I know that Jamaica has the best tasting coconut water in the world? Well I continue to sample all the ones that come on the market in New York.  Some, like the Grace Kennedy branded product, made in Sri Lanka, almost made me throw up because the taste is so horrible.  Others from Asia have me looking for mouth wash. One from Santo Domingo I poured in the trash when the sales person was not looking.  Yesterday I sampled One Coconut Water, another popular brand.  I took just two sips before pouring it on the sidewalk. But the one from Nutts farm in St,  Thomas brings a smile of satisfaction.  Wow, what a taste!

99% Of Jamaican Economists And Politicians Do Not Understand That You Cannot Build An Economy On Competitive Disadvantages
You see this is one of our main mistakes as a region. We have been trying to compete in areas in which we do not have competitive advantages and those in which we do have competitive advantages we minored in, sold or leased to foreigners!  Would you invest in Antigua in an area in which Antigua is competitively disadvantaged; say in wheat farming?   Jamaica has a major competitive advantage in coconut water with the best tasting product sold in the US and yet I never heard former Minister  of Agriculture mention it, not even once.  Every American who I have given a sample to cannot believe how great it taste from the  jeweler on 48 Street, to the Hamptonite with a townhouse on Central Park West and the owner of the top chocolate store in Soho to the Advertising executive on Madison  Avenue. Some literally squeal in delight; others  hug the bottle while some demand where they can get it.  But we Jamaicans love to complain too much instead of using what we have in our hands.  Did you know that the Jamaican coconut water has been selling in the US for over two decades or even longer? Well the Brazilians just got into the market a couple of years ago and their product which tastes like S**T is nationwide and into the hundreds of millions in sales already!     

The FAO  ([email protected]. 0113906570568720)  studied the Jamaican coconut water and their analysis proved that it is superior to a-n-y sport drink product on the market anywhere in the world!   I bet Minister Tufton has never read the report. The sport drink market worldwide is a $US multi- billion dollar market and Jamaica has a superior product and Jamaicans are talking about wooing investors?  Investors will never invest in Jamaica the way they did in Singapore

Why Is Grace Kennedy Marketing Coconut Water From Sri Lanka??   
Shockingly, as delectable as the real Jamaican coconut water tastes, Grace Kennedy is selling something called coconut water that tastes like, well almost s…..t! And no wonder it tastes so horrible, it comes from Sri Lanka! What the heavens are the executives at Grace thinking??  Don’t they recognize the golden product taste of unaltered Jamaican coconut water?  Give it to Grace Kennedy though, their product design is professional and designed appropriately for high profile export markets and all marketers know that appearance can impact taste.

Jamaica Continue To Search For Answers Trying Gimmick After Gimmick When Solutions Like Coconut Water Production Has Been Waiting On It For Decades!
Seven short years is what it takes for coconut trees to come into production.  For decades Jamaica has been struggling and begging for FDI and recycling between the IMF and international and local Bond Markets while other countries just come and steal their competitively advantaged products and opportunity.  It makes one ask if Jamaica really is in love with hardship and poverty or is just afraid of work. Production be damned. Just give the locals some crash programme work money so they can go and drink it away.  Sigh.  Is it a hopeless case??

Ginger, Cassava, Yams While Important Brings Pennies; Coconut Water Brings Hundreds Of Millions Yet Minister Clarke Never Heard Of It?
Minister Clarke should really take a visit to survey the supermarkets in New York.  There he would hardly find cassava. He would see some yellow yams and a little ginger.  But when he started to count coconut water products he had better take out his laptop computer.  Then he had better punch in the numbers from the census…oh no he should really just count the total population of the US….320 million versus that far smaller market called England, which stunningly seems to be the preference.  Because the mainstream American market will never eat cassava or yellow yam…too much carbohydrates for a population which is always dieting.  Coconut water is the only product from Jamaica which has cross-over market potential in the US.  Again, are we afraid of success and wealth?  Do we love to struggle?  Does our poverty brings us much needed attention to counter our low self-esteem?? Do we understand our psychology?? Why do we seem to prefer short term fleeting prosperity over long term development??

Does The PNP Understand Basic Reasoning Like Cause And Effect Methodology?
Sadly it seems that the new PNP administration prefers Crash Programme schemes instead of real economic development. There is no mention of any Emergency Export program. Any by attempting to “create” jobs without first focusing on products or business opportunities the PNP are turning cause and effect on its head! Where will that lead but to disaster.  Well that is what the voters voted for.

 

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Jamaicans.com