Commerce and culture on the agenda for second British Caribbean Chamber

Sally Allister with Hadford Howell of the British High Commission in Barbados in the Carlton Supermarket. The store is owned and operated in Barbados by British Caribbean Chamber of Commerce member Andrew Bynoe and his family and now stocks products from GF Foods. 

A CALYPSO collaboration is set to open the door for UK businesses dealing in everything from food and drink to energy and culture with the launch of a second British Caribbean Chamber of Commerce.

Companies based in Grimsby and North Yorkshire are among those looking forward to the introduction of the new Chamber as they work to build on the success of the first British Caribbean Chamber, set up in 2001.

Many more businesses at both ends of the trans-Atlantic chain are expected to benefit from the establishment next week of an office in Saint Lucia which will work alongside the original centre in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Each office will have its own advisory committee reporting to the board of the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, which has set up the Caribbean Chamber network through its international trade department.

Pauline Wade, Director of International Trade at the Hull and Humber Chamber, arrived in the Caribbean this week and will be joined by Chief Executive Ian Kelly to represent British businesses at the launch hosted by John Kennedy, President of the new Chamber, in his home, Atlantis House, in Saint Lucia’s Cap Estate development, on March 17.

Also present will be the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Kenny Anthony, Governor General of Saint Lucia, Dame Pearlette Louisy, British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Victoria Dean and Debbie Worrell, Political Officer at the British High Commission.

Pauline said: As demonstrated by the list of dignitaries, this is very significant for business in the Caribbean. But it is also important for British businesses, and we have success stories from our own part of the world to underline that.”

Sally Allister, a director of GF Foods (York) Ltd of Selby, said it was a trade mission to the Caribbean with the BCCC in January 2014 which helped her business take its Feel Free brand of gluten-free products to the international market.

Sally said: “We went to Trinidad and Tobago and to Barbados and it was really good for business. The Chamber set up meetings with the relevant businesses and we exported to Trinidad with a partner who also covers Barbados. Customers in the Caribbean are very loyal to British brands and there are a lot of good opportunities.

“It’s not something we would have looked at without the help of the BCCC. We are now also working in South Africa and Dubai and we are developing Ireland, but the Caribbean was the first export market and everything else has followed in the 15 months since we went there. There is definitely room for more growth in the Caribbean and the new office will certainly be of interest to us.”

Ramsden International, based in Grimsby, won an international business award from the British Chambers of Commerce in 2014 in recognition for the company’s efforts in building an export network of more than 120 countries.

The company supplies more than 23,000 grocery product lines to retailers, wholesalers, food service companies and non-governmental organisations and is developing the Caribbean market with the assistance of the British Caribbean Chamber.

Debbie Worrell added that the new Chamber will provide British companies with a voice in Saint Lucia and further afield through the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

She said: “The Chamber will also provide a voice for St Lucian buyers of British products on trade policy, particularly on customs duty and clearance times and will be the first point of contact for British companies seeking to do business in St Lucia and the OECS.”

Pauline Wade added: “We started taking trade missions to the Caribbean in 1998. We are opening a second Chamber in response to a request from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and because of interest among businesses in the Caribbean.

“Trinidad and Tobago is the world’s seventh largest producer of oil and gas and is often overlooked by UK companies but it is a friendly market, it speaks English and its legal and parliamentary systems are similar to ours.

“There are opportunities in education, distance learning, speciality food and drink and the oil and gas supply chain, and we are also exploring ideas for bringing Caribbean performers to Hull for the 2017 City of Culture year.”