Three local businesses will gain some much needed regional exposure later this month when they participate in the 9th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) in Grenada.{{more}}

Ricardo Primus of Doc Primus Essence; Angela DaSilva of Angie’s Products; and Zeran Sutherland of GEMS Manufacturing – will be attending the event compliments the Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. (CED) Business Gateway Project. They are all members of CED’s Vincyklus Inc Agro-processing Cluster. The delegation will be led by CED Business Development Field Officer Nisha Glasgow and Public Relations Officer Keisha Phillips.

The CWA runs from October 16-23 under the theme, “Advancing the Agri-Food Sector to Achieve Sustainable Development and Food Security”.

According to Glasgow, while in Grenada members of the delegation will also attend several workshops and an exhibition.

“The Cluster is now at the stage where marketing is becoming a big part of the process and this exhibition will be viewed as a marketing drive for the clients who will be attending the exhibition,” she says.

“The whole process is one designed to expose these clients to the regional market and for them to create networks with their fellow agro-processors from across the region. The week of activities is designed in a manner where the clients will get a chance to participate in workshops and put their entrepreneurial skills into action.”

The Grenada Ministry of Agriculture will, to that end, be holding a meeting with regional heads from the Inter- American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture IICA, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the CARICOM Secretariat, (the tripartite Secretariat of the Alliance).

The CWA has been taking place under the patronage of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (“The Alliance”).

It was first celebrated in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago and, to date, seven other territories – including St. Vincent in 2008, have hosted this mega agricultural event. The CWA was conceptualized by IICA as a facility to place agriculture and rural life on the “front burner” in order for: The key decision-makers in the public and private sectors to better acknowledge the importance of agriculture and rural life to the economy and social and environmental stability; and the major stakeholders in Agriculture and related sectors to have an opportunity to forge a common vision for the repositioning of agriculture and the enhancement of rural life.