Caribbean Trade Council

Antigua
Bahamas
Barbados
Cuba
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
Trinidad /Tobago

Caribbean Trade Council
3155 Main Street
Hartford
Connecticut 06120

Pager(860) 939-9998

Pass Events & News

ANDREW LAWRENCE,
President and director of the Hartford Caribbean Trade Council,
is trying to develop trade between Hartford and the Caribbean region.
(MARC-YVES REGIS I / HARTFORD COURANT / July 15, 2008)

West Indians began migrating to the Connecticut River Valley during World War II and quickly found agricultural jobs in the region. Many worked in the valley's thriving tobacco industry. Today, the Hartford area has one of the country's largest populations of residents of West Indian descent. In 2004, a group of volunteers formed the Hartford Caribbean Trade Council to promote commerce between Connecticut and Caribbean island nations. The nonprofit group is overseen by a nine-member board.

Andrew Lawrence, who is of Jamaican descent, is a Hartford police officer, local businessman and president and director of the trade council

Q Why was the trade council established?

A The purpose of the council is to encourage trade to come into Hartford, as opposed to only coming through New York and Florida. By having products come into Bradley International Airport, for example, the Hartford area gets a tax base and the residents of Hartford get lower prices for all the products rather than the products having to go to New York and then be trucked all the way back here. We are an economic development initiative of the city. [More]

Filling those US shelves
Diaspora group seeks to increase Jamaican products take-up of shelf space

Ingrid Brown, Senior Business Observer reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Caribbean Trade Council (CTC), an economic initiative out of Hartford, Connecticut in the United States, said it has been getting major supermarket chains and other businesses in that city to designate shelf space, and entire aisles in some cases, for products manufactured in Jamaica.

Andrew Lawrence, president of the CTC for the City of Hartford, who was in attendance at the Third Biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference in Kingston, said his council has commenced work on a number of other initiatives that he believes will broaden the scope for Jamaican products reaching that market.

With Hartford having the third largest concentration of West Indians as a result of the migrant tobacco workers there is a huge demand for Jamaican products in that city.
Following last week's staging of a Trade and Investment Seminar in Hartford last week, Lawrence said they were able to link the Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI) with at least one major supermarket chain to negotiate for an aisle to be designated to the sale of Jamaican products.

"What we are trying to do is to get a lot of the products from Jamaica unto the shelves, so it is not only to supply to the smaller stores but to also provide avenues in a major supermarket where we can have our own isle with our products," he said.

Lawrence said as a result of a presentation that JTI gave, they are now in the very early stages of discussions with some companies wanting to invest in Jamaica. One such interested entity, he said is the United States Department of Commerce which represent a number of major companies. [More]

Recently, Ronald Robinson, a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in Jamaica spoke at the West Indian Social Club of Hartford

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS & FOREIGN TRADE URGES
WEST INDIAN GROUP TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING JAMAICA
By Johnny Mason
May 11th, 2009

Hartford - (April 24, 2009) - Ronald Robinson, a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in Jamaica spoke at the West Indian Social Club of Hartford looking for people to help build the nation while revealing plans to mobilize the Jamaican Diaspora.

“It was very informative. This is the kind of information that helps everyone,” said Andrew Lawrence, president and director of the Caribbean Trade Council, Inc., which invited Robinson along with Consul General to New York, Geneive Brown Metzger, to speak at the Hartford club last week.

More than 150 came out to hear Robinson who spoke on Jamaica’s struggling economy, the creation of programs and efforts to improve issues such as education, healthcare and crime and efforts to mobilize the Jamaican Diaspora, or the dispersion of Jamaican people from their homeland.

Robinson praised the Hartford club for its rich history in providing a haven and for years ago helping the many Caribbean immigrants who came here looking for farm work. The club was founded in 1950 and its charitable foundation was formed by club members in 1978.

Robinson said the Jamaican government officials are determined to combat its economic woes and improve life for its residents. The country recently took a positive step in improving its healthcare system by creating a program that waived partial hospital fees for patients, he said.

When speaking about Jamaica, Robinson said there is little information or records on the names or whereabouts of many of the people who comprise the Jamaican Diaspora. A group of government officials and Jamaicans at home and overseas want to keep better records to engage more of the Diaspora in the island’s development, he said. [More]

President/Director: Andrew Lawrence

Metro Hartford Economic Development Initiative
Member of Metro Hartford Chamber of Commerce, International Business Council.

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