Best Practices in Business & Economic Development Latest Issue November 2024

Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) – Kingston, Jamaica

written by BVC November 26, 2024

Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ)

Elevating Quality Across Industries

Expertly transforming local industries, from tourism to emerging markets, through innovative standards, strategic partnerships, and a customer-focused approach.

The Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) is the national authority responsible for developing and up until recently, enforcing standards in various industries critical to the Jamaican economy. Operating under the Ministry of Industry, Investment, and Commerce, BSJ’s mission centers around promoting quality, innovation, and compliance to ensure local safety and consumer protection and elevate Jamaican products and services to a globally competitive level.

Dr. Velton Gooden, the Bureau’s Executive Director, describes the BSJ as “a facilitator of business.” “Our primary mandate is to help resource producers of goods and service providers be globally competitive,” he explains, speaking clearly about BSJ’s focus on driving trade and expanding export potential. For Dr. Gooden, BSJ is a critical partner for industries aiming to thrive in increasingly competitive global markets.

Dr. Gooden first discusses Jamaica’s long standing mining sector in discussing the economic pillars that the Bureau’s work most directly supports. “Traditionally, we have been prominent in the mining industry—bauxite and other aggregates like limestone,” he notes, highlighting mining’s foundational role in Jamaica’s economy. However, while mining remains a significant force, he also identifies other industries as significant contributors.

“Tourism is number one,” he asserts, “while agriculture and agro-processing follow closely,” he says, nodding to their growing influence in Jamaica’s economic landscape. With a focus on enhancing standards in these sectors, the BSJ helps ensure that Jamaican goods—whether mined, grown, or crafted—meet stringent quality requirements, making them more attractive in domestic and international markets.

Enhancing Agribusiness

Agriculture in Jamaica is an essential support system for the island’s booming tourism industry and a significant driver of export potential. “Jamaica is known for many indigenous products and its cuisine,” Dr. Gooden says. Despite the country’s reputation for items like ginger, yams, and peppers, he admits, “We have under-supplied the market.” This gap, he explains, represents a substantial opportunity for the agribusiness sector to grow exports, especially if these products meet international standards for quality and safety.

To bridge this gap, the BSJ leverages Jamaica’s National Quality Policy, a framework designed to help all producers, including those in agriculture, meet the standards required for global trade. Dr. Gooden explains, “The Bureau is responsible for three of the four pillars that underpin our national quality infrastructure.” The first pillar, he says, is “standards creation, development, and sales.” BSJ is deeply involved in developing national standards or adopting international ones, focusing particularly on areas where Jamaican products have the greatest export potential.

The second pillar is metrology—a critical aspect for industries that require accuracy in areas like mass, flow, and temperature, while the third area, conformity assessment, encompasses BSJ’s testing and certification services. “We have 20 labs, ten of which are accredited to the ISO 17025 standard,” Dr. Gooden points to the rigorous testing services BSJ offers. These labs conduct around 57,000 tests annually, evaluating products to ensure they meet global quality benchmarks. Certification services, provided through BSJ’s National Certification Body of Jamaica, further support producers by offering ISO certifications like ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 22000 for food safety.

Cutting-Edge Lab Capabilities

The BSJ has made significant strides in advancing its laboratory capabilities. “Our lab offers a range of testing and calibration services,” Dr. Gooden says, explaining that BSJ has brought four labs up to the ISO 17025 standard within the last two years. One of these labs has become a regional center of excellence, where other Caribbean nations rely on BSJ’s expertise in evaluating appliances like refrigerators, air conditioners, and wine chillers for energy efficiency claims.

“We are able to test a wide range of food products, both in terms of chemistry and microbiology,” Dr. Gooden explains. The labs check for pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli— micro-organisms that can trigger foodborne illnesses if unchecked. This testing capacity is essential for protecting local consumers and assuring international buyers that Jamaican food exports meet global safety standards.

The packaging lab also plays an essential role, particularly for exporters. Dr. Gooden elaborates that the lab can verify that packaging complies with international label requirements, examining details like nutritional information and “best before” dates. Efficiency is also a priority, and BSJ has significantly improved its turnaround times. “Our average turnaround was about 21 days,” Dr. Gooden acknowledges, but the agency has brought this down to 14 days through concerted efforts. The goal, he says, is to reach a nine-day average by early next year, a timeline that would “put us in line with the benchmark of other international labs” engaged in similar testing services.

Strategic Partnerships

Collaboration is vital to BSJ’s work, especially as the agency strives to help Jamaican businesses reach international markets. Dr. Gooden explains that BSJ has partnerships with several key players within Jamaica and abroad. “Our lead agency for promoting Jamaican services and trade is JamPro,” he says, describing a joint initiative called Export Max. This program, he notes, is “designed to help smaller exporters meet export requirements,” and BSJ’s role is to provide these companies with the testing and certification they need to succeed in foreign markets.

BSJ also collaborates with the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC), a government entity that nurtures small businesses. “JBDC often acts as an incubator for entrepreneurial activities,” Dr. Gooden notes, and BSJ’s partnership offers substantial benefits to smaller firms. Through a signed memorandum of understanding, BSJ provides JBDC clients with up to 25% discounts on services like testing, label assessment, and training, making it easier for emerging businesses to access the support they need to thrive.

Academia is another critical partner in BSJ’s ecosystem. Recently, the agency entered into an MOU with the University of Technology, one of Jamaica’s premier universities, to support research and training opportunities. This collaboration enhances BSJ’s research capabilities and creates a pipeline for new talent and expertise. “It’s about creating a synergy,” Dr. Gooden explains, noting that this partnership will help BSJ stay at the forefront of industry trends while providing students with hands-on experience in standards and quality assurance.

Modernizing Resources and Expanding Standards

As the BSJ grows its capabilities, it’s strategically upgrading its resources and standards to meet the demands of Jamaica’s evolving industries. “One of the biggest projects we’re working on is the acquisition of major equipment to improve our testing capacity,” Dr. Gooden explains. These acquisitions will meet current needs while future-proofing the lab’s operations with built-in redundancy. “We’re acquiring equipment that will allow us to offer some overlap in services, ensuring we can handle high demand without delay.”

These enhancements are particularly crucial for emerging industries like cannabis and psilocybin. Testing in these sectors requires specialized instruments to detect heavy metals—cadmium, lead, mercury, and others—down to the parts-per-billion level, a precision that’s especially important for pharmaceutical-grade products. With new, highly sensitive equipment like the recently acquired ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry), BSJ can meet these exacting standards.

In addition to equipment, Dr. Gooden acknowledges that BSJ’s facilities are overdue for an upgrade. “We’ve been around since 1969, and many of our buildings have been around just as long,” he says. July marked BSJ’s 55th anniversary, and plans are underway to complete significant building upgrades by the agency’s 60th milestone. These improvements will modernize the infrastructure and create an environment more suited to today’s technological needs, further supporting BSJ’s capacity to serve Jamaican industries with world-class standards.

Standards for Tourism

As tourism continues to flourish in Jamaica, the BSJ has actively aligned the industry with international standards. Tourism, the island’s largest economic driver, involves diverse stakeholders, from large resorts to small boutique hotels and local attractions. Recognizing this, the BSJ has prioritized engaging directly with the sector and meeting business owners and managers where they are across various locations on the island. “Last year, we focused on going out into the community, especially working with some of our smaller hoteliers,” Dr. Gooden explains.

Maxine A. Fagan, the BSJ’s Communication and Customer Service Manager describes a major outreach event in Ocho Rios that brought together a range of tourism players, from independent operators to representatives from the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo). “The audience was a very diverse group of hoteliers, small and large players in the industry,” Fagan recalls.

During this event, the BSJ introduced stakeholders to relevant standards and showcased its client services program, emphasizing practical tools that businesses could adopt to improve quality and safety. Fagan notes that the event’s success was reflected in follow-up actions: one of the participants joined BSJ’s National Quality Awards program, an initiative recognizing organizations that excel in implementing quality standards.

A New Identity

Looking to the future, the BSJ is undergoing a significant transformation, aiming to reshape its public image and refine its role. One of the agency’s top priorities is to complete the separation of its regulatory functions from its standards and facilitation work, an effort that began with the creation of the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA). “We want to rid ourselves of the image of being an inspector or monitor,” Dr. Gooden explains, acknowledging that while regulation remains essential, the BSJ’s primary mission is now to support growth and competitiveness in Jamaican industry. The NCRA Act, which was passed in June 2023, formalized this split, but the transition process is ongoing.

This shift in focus has led to a refreshed marketing strategy emphasizing the BSJ’s role as a facilitator rather than an enforcer. One key initiative is the “Lab to Market” campaign, which showcases the BSJ’s services and encourages businesses to utilize its testing and certification programs. “We’re running prime-time ads on both TVJ and CVM,” Dr. Gooden shares, describing the agency’s efforts to reach a wider audience. Another initiative, “Quality Talks,” provides an educational platform for industry stakeholders to learn about best practices and standards. Through these campaigns, the BSJ is rebranding itself as a supportive institution dedicated to enhancing industry standards rather than a regulatory body to be wary of.

As part of this transformation, the BSJ invests heavily in digitization and automation to streamline its processes and improve service delivery. “We want to project ourselves as an institution of excellence,” Dr. Gooden states, envisioning the BSJ as a leader in quality services across the Caribbean and beyond. This digital overhaul will allow the agency to operate more efficiently and enhance its accessibility, making it easier for Jamaican businesses to engage with BSJ’s services and become more competitive globally.

Central to the BSJ’s renewed identity is a cultural framework embodied in the acronym “CARE”—Customer Focused, Accountability, Responsiveness, and Excellence. “We’re really projecting an image of excellence,” Dr. Gooden emphasizes. The CARE framework is the Bureau’s promise to its clients and partners, an internal code that shapes every interaction and decision. As the BSJ moves forward, this customer-focused approach will redefine the agency as a proactive force in Jamaica’s economic development, a partner businesses can trust to help them meet international standards and grow their market reach.