BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MORE than a dozen local agro-processors are currently engaged in a workshop intended to equip them with the knowledge to properly and competitively market their finished products.
The activity – Marketing Management of Food Processing Commercialization Workshop – officially began on Monday (Sept. 26) and is a joint venture between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Ministry of Agriculture and is being supervised by the Food Processing Commercialization Expert Dispatch Project Manager Yi-Yi Lee.
In delivering brief remarks at the opening ceremony, Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Natasha Daniel explained that the idea for the workshop came about after inadequacies in the food processing framework and practices on St. Kitts were observed.
“In March 2014, the International Corporationand Development Fund Taiwan (ICDF) was approached by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to dispatch an expert mission to evaluate the current food processing facilities on both islands. From this evaluation, several observations were made.”
She explained that recommendations were made after which steps were taken, one of which involved the hosting of the workshop.
The workshop, which concludes on Friday (Sept. 30), is being facilitated by Dr. Ming-Chang Wu, Dean of the College of Agriculture in Taiwan. And while speaking with the media, he explained that the workshop is important because proper marketing is an integral part of agro-processing practices
Dr. Wu explained that good marketing and branding are key if the products are to get into the hands of consumer, adding that because of the natural and quality products which are used in agro-processing, they could be appealing to tourists who visit our shores.
So far, the workshop has been quite interactive and participants are expected to immediately employ the strategies they would have learnt.
