Concern about decline in exports

Chief Executive Officer of Export Barbados (BIDC) Mark Hill is concerned about the falloff in some exports and has challenged manufacturers to be more innovative to turn things around.

He said while Barbados was cited by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as one of two Caribbean countries – the other being Guyana – to witness overall export growth for the first three months of this year, there was cause for concern in specific areas.

“As far as that growth is concerned, we are seeing that growth primarily in what we call the bio-economy life science space, and that is the space where we get food processing, pharmaceuticals, rum and those types of bio-chemicals. So we were in double-digit growth in a very strong way.

“But we are seeing a significant decline in what we call the design economy. The design economy is declining by five per cent per annum. For example, in 2019 we had a high of US$30.8 million (BDS$61.6 million) in exports, but now post-COVID, the design economy has not recovered. So we are doing US$17.1 million (BDS$34.2 million) in exports in that space. This is a problem,” said Hill.

He gave the assessment during a launching ceremony for this year’s Barbados Manufacturers’ Association (BMA) Trade and Innovation Expo (formerly BMEX), set for October 27 to 29 at the Wildey Gymnasium.

Hill said he believed greater focus was needed on “innovation and creating our products in a new branded experience in order to attract more offtake from the global market”.

“Trade shows like this are important because what is happening in Barbados is that everybody wants to do the same thing over and over and expect [different] results. So every year, the same look and feel and we expect to attract new customers.

“But we have to tap innovation in order to create new innovative experiences for global customers . . . . For the global market, there are certain standards we have to meet, there are certain health and safety standards. On the design side, there are ergonomic standards. For home accessories as well, products have to be made of sustainable materials. So we need to take more sustainable design on board as well if we want to look at exporting,” he explained.

Hill said Barbados was also seeing some decline in the area of technology.

“We have very little input in the area of tech export. Computer chip production is down, virtually erased. Now we have to look at new robotics opportunities, new coding opportunities,” he said.

Singling out furniture manufacturing as an area for innovation, the Export Barbados boss explained that while the old manufacturing process worked well in the past, it was no longer sustainable.

“So our furniture manufacturers have to learn new skills . . . . We have a lot of design and innovation work to do,” he said.

Hill also highlighted the low levels of exports in the area of fisheries and aquaculture.

“Our ocean exports have flatlined. We are doing less than $1 million. . . . Very little processing is happening on the island, so I hope we have a lot of fish products coming on stream at the innovation show as well,” he said.

“We used to be exporting boats as well with sails and other ocean opportunities that we are not exploring. Those sectors are critical. Those two sectors have pulled down the performance of life science and bioindustries significantly. So bio industries and life sciences are growing at 22 per cent, while design is declining by 18 per cent.

“Then ocean [based goods] is declining by four per cent. So we are not out of the woods at all. Even though we were seeing growth, that growth is being led by one leg. So we have a lot of work to do to get designers to come to the forefront . . . . We have a lot of packaging design stuff to improve to come in line with the standard packaging that countries would allow to come into their jurisdictions,” he explained.

(MM)