By Howard Walker, Staff Reporter 
Frankson (left) and Jarrett (right)
NUTTY FLAKES, corn flakes, biscuits, cereals, Busta and Chubby soft drinks, tinned Fruta and Viva, the sparkling bottled water, are among a wide range of food-stuff from Trinidad and Tobago that are now commonplace in the local market.
According to the 2002 External Trade report published by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, (STATIN), Jamaica imported J$17 billion worth of goods from its CARICOM neighbours last year, of which Trinidad and Tobago accounted for J$13 billion.
A tour of several supermarkets revealed a range of enticing imports. However, a closer look at the labels of most of these consumer goods show that a great number of them are manufactured in the oil-rich twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Food and beverages are the two major goods that have penetrated the market so far.
But despite the horde of goods from Trinidad, Doreen Frankson, President of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA), says this is not necessarily bad for Jamaica.
"Competition from similar imported manufactured goods from Trinidad has assisted local manufacturers to become more efficient in order to remain competitive and improve their local market share. This is very evident in segments of the food and beverage sector," she said.
According to Mrs. Frankson, Trinidad was better able to penetrate our local market mainly because local manufacturers were not able to compete with them and this had a negative impact on Jamaica's trade balance with CARICOM.
