Barbados, like other Caribbean small island developing States, imports the greater part of its food. The national assessment prepared under this project estimates that imports cover at least 80 per cent of national food needs, leaving households and producers exposed to external price, energy and shipping shocks. Strengthening domestic production, building resilient supply chains and increasing intra-regional agri-food trade are therefore priorities.
Production capacity is not the only constraint: access to formal markets matters just as much. Producers who cannot document their products struggle to supply hotels, supermarkets or school meals programmes, the buyers best placed to make local production viable at scale. Certification is not an end in itself, but it is often the condition for reaching these buyers.
Organized by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) under its Development Account project on sustainable and resilient food supply chains in the Caribbean and the Arab Region, the workshop builds on the national assessment, the April 2026 National Validation Workshop in Bridgetown and consultations with national counterparts. It contributes directly to the project’s trade policy and sustainable agri-food supply chains component, implemented by UNCTAD’s Division on International Trade and Commodities. Designed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security, it targets micro and small producers, with speakers using plain language and taking questions throughout.
The workshop aims to help Barbadian producers and small processors understand what buyers require, what compliance and certification involve, and what national and regional support is available.
More specifically, it aims to:
- Clarify the core requirements common to most buyers, and the thin layer that changes by destination market;
- Set out what certification involves, costs and delivers, through worked business cases rather than general statements;
- Connect producers directly with national and regional support institutions, indicating whom to approach and how;
- Identify priority producers, product groups and practical follow-up actions under the project.
