Mastering the value-chain system - There is a market for specialised packaging
Published:Monday | May 14, 2018 | 12:00 AMChristopher Serju/Gleaner Writer
The Jamaica Business Developing Corporation (JBDC) is well aware of the inherent difficulties of the value-chain system, requiring as it does the same high level of input from each contributor along every step of the chain.
Though cognisant of the potential headaches and other difficulties which had plagued other business operations and doomed them to failure, it still opted to go this route.
For, given the shortage of adequate raw material supply, it could see no other way of getting Jamaican producers up to the required volumes in terms of economies of scale to compete on a global level.
Janine Taylor, manager for the marketing services unit, pointed to the over-riding economic reality which informed its production template for its group of small-enterprise operators.
"There is no one producer who is going to able to do it on their own and with 12 persons here, if you were to just take this one product on its own, it may not survive, especially if you talking about overseas market, but together the line is stronger.
Eyeing export market
Our eyeball is really on the export market, but anything Jamaican has to be tested locally. You have fi dance a yard before you can go abroad," she said.
"Because we are looking at value chains we have already started to engage producers of similar products. So we may not be able to get this particular supplier scaling up to meet that demand, but we can add two or three more of the similar products.
"It is really looking at what we see as some of the barriers. There is the ability to scale up if the market responds positively and we are looking at it and saying to clients, this is another way that you could do it. Don't try and do it on your own."
Access to the JBDC's insight into and understanding of the dynamics is essential to getting into and then maintaining a presence in lucrative sectors such as the speciality food marketplace, especially given some of the local limitations.
According to Janine Taylor, manager for the marketing services unit at the Jamaica Business Developing Corporation (JBDC), there is a market for specialised packaging such as plastic bottles, which are not manufactured locally.
"We don't make bottles here, so we have to look at how we stay relevant to the speciality food market which is sexy, off the chain. We're not talking about the typical go-in-the -supermarket, tek-up type of packaging. Really, we have to import those inputs, so we have to now support our beneficiaries of this product to use the (high grade) packaging, an investment which they would not necessarily be able to afford on their own," she said.
For example, instead of the six producers who use a similar type of bottle attempting to source this input on their own, the JBDC as an umbrella entity is better able to import a container load, the contents of which is then dispersed to the different parties in relevant quantities.
"It's really trying to address some of the things that we see as barriers to the competitiveness of our clients and pitching in where we could, which is branding and packaging. We have a design house that we use to assist clients. So we have worked with the local manufacturers for the boxes which are made locally but we have a lot of innovation now taking place in the background and coming up with other product ideas to really strengthen the line," said Taylor.
Start-up benefits
She pointed out some of the start-up benefits of operating under the aegis of the JBDC.
"If you are making flour, why compete under two different brands when there is really very little differentiation on such a small scale?
So we have basically provided a system for them to operate because it would be difficult for them to engage with that sort of thing, but us as the anchor firm that's managing that value chain, it allows us the flexibility to do that. I think, for the clients, they are so appreciative of the fact that on their own they were unable to move from idea, to prototype to market," said Taylor.