Business View Caribbean | July 2022

38 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 products. We organize trade shows overseas, and we also organize trade shows in Jamaica, where we have our companies physically present and invite buyers from overseas. The end result of all our efforts is to build up the manufacturing sector in Jamaica. Many years ago, it was one of the leading sectors – accounting for about 20 % of GDP– but over the past 30 years, for various reasons, it has declined to about 8 % of GDP. We want to see that trend reverse. In particular, we think it can be reversed by increasing export.” BVC: How is the supply chain disruption impacting manufacturers? Mahfood: “In 2020, when the impact of COVID was really significant and there was a massive downturn in the purchasing of manufactured items, companies had to change their method of operation in order to increase productivity and efficiency. In 2021, we started to see the benefits of those efforts. Manufacturers were returning to a higher level of profitability than they had