A push by Prime Minister Mia Mottley for small businesses to target overseas markets is running up against deep structural constraints, with leading entrepreneurs warning that gaps in credit, logistics and labour could stall the country’s export ambitions before they take hold.
Rigid banking practices and severe gaps in the labour market threaten to derail small businesses before they can even reach the shoreline, the leaders said.
For many manufacturers, the government’s recent investments in production infrastructure have provided a critical stepping stone. Facilities such as the International Food Centre in Newton have successfully transitioned home-based operations into standardised, compliant environments, the entrepreneurs said. But they argued that increasing production capacity is only half of a much larger, more complex equation.
“The reality is you can build capacity, you can have a great product, but at the end of it, you need somebody to buy it,” said Tyrique Wilson, the founder of Carrington’s Rum Cream.
“Whether it be an independent distributor in another country, or through working relationships with some of the bigger companies or some of the bigger distributors, whether it be in the Caribbean, the US, the UK, or wherever, the reality is, yes, we’ve done some work in terms of helping small businesses build capacity, but we need that final bridge in terms of connecting with real and serious buyers to actually get our products overseas.”
Responding to Mottley’s assertions that a “colonial mentality” or an inherent lack of trust among local business owners prevents strategic collaboration, Wilson reframed the issue as one of institutional gridlock and risk management.
He noted that while government lending agencies such as Fund Access and the Trust Loan Fund provide vital initial support, their rigid lending caps fail to keep pace with rapid business growth, forcing entrepreneurs to face the strict, often exclusionary terms of commercial banks.
Wilson recounted his own frustrating experiences trying to secure foundational capital to scale his operations.
“Even when it came to applying for credit at the bank, I had to have an account for three years before I could apply for even so much of the credit card of a business,” Wilson said.
“As a business that does a lot of importing in terms of its packaging, it almost frustrated the process when it came to importing my products because obviously there’s a very low debit limit. I used to have to use my parents’ and my friends’ credit cards and then reimburse them because the bank would not give me any credit until I had an account with them for more than three years.”
For those Barbadian companies that have defied the odds and successfully broken into the international arena, the challenges do not disappear; instead, they mutate into complex logistical and financial hurdles.
Courtney Mills, the founder of Ulu Foods, has experienced strong global demand for her brand, but highlights a critical bottleneck in regional shipping infrastructure that disproportionately penalises smaller agricultural and food exporters.
“One challenge is the shipping route, particularly for any sort of fresh or frozen food, so mostly the agriculture industry,” Mills explained. “It’s going to be difficult without Less than Container Load (LCL) shipping routes to key markets in the United States and the UK. We really only have Miami, and you can’t do LCL. You have to do full container load if you’re shipping out from Barbados… so that’s really challenging for small businesses to get to a full container load capacity quickly.”
This rigid shipping structure exacerbates a severe working capital deficit. Overseas distributors routinely demand extended repayment windows that place an immense financial strain on undercapitalised Caribbean firms.
“A lot of companies in the US or the UK require 90-day to 120-day payment terms, and when we don’t have access to those kinds of working capital facilities in Barbados, it makes it very, very challenging,” Mills said. “So another area to focus on is how can we enable our financial institutions to close that gap for small business exporters?”
Beyond capital and containers, the domestic operational landscape presents its own existential threats to expansion, particularly regarding human resources and specialised maintenance. Mills noted that across almost every industry, a severe shortage of manual and technical labour is actively choking productivity.
“Industry right now, it’s very difficult to find labour. Every farm, most industries, we’re really struggling,” Mills said, calling for wider global partnerships to bring in required personnel. She emphasised that the modern export market requires high-tech operations, an area where Barbados currently faces a steep deficit.
“Most of the time if something breaks down on the island right now, I have to bring someone in internationally to fix it. That kind of downtime is the difference between me being able to effectively serve international markets and not.”
Clement Mapp, the Managing Director and founder of local brand 6701 Blended Street, weighed in on the national dialogue regarding economic sustainability and regional integration. While agreeing with the Prime Minister’s vision that boosting exports is vital for foreign exchange earnings and long-term economic growth, Mapp emphasised that the transition for small businesses is far from straightforward.
”Many of us are already balancing rising production costs, sourcing challenges, utility expenses, transportation costs, and the daily realities of maintaining product consistency and quality while trying to grow responsibly,” Mapp stated.
A major challenge for local boutique brands is scaling up production without compromising the core identity of their goods. Mapp noted that for 6701 Blended Street, preserving artisanal quality remains a top priority, requiring careful investment, strategic planning, and robust infrastructure. He argued that the broader economic ecosystem must evolve alongside these businesses if the country’s export goals are to be realised.
He concluded that while Barbadian entrepreneurs possess a genuine desire to expand across the Caribbean, significant work remains to make regional trade seamless, commercially practical, and sustainable.
(RR)
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