☕ THE HEADLINE
GraceKennedy operates in 13 Caribbean markets. Massy Group spans 11 countries. But your average Kingston manufacturer can't even ship efficiently to Trinidad. The "Missing Middle"—firms earning $1-10M ready to scale—is trapped by barriers that conglomerates leaped over decades ago.
🔥 THE "AH-HA" MOMENT
CARICOM has no shared definition of what an "SME" even is.
Here's the absurdity: A "small business" in Jamaica (under $5M revenue) is a "medium enterprise" in Barbados and doesn't qualify for Trinidad's development bank support. There's no central registry tracking scale-ready firms across the region. Meanwhile, intra-CARICOM trade = 13.9%. SMEs aren't thinking "regional." They're locked in tiny national markets.
The policy disconnect is worse. SME development sits in one ministry. Investment promotion lives in another. No coordination. A firm in St. Kitts struggles to ship to Trinidad not because there's no demand, but because the connective tissue of trade is broken.
📊 THE DATA THAT STINGS
The SME Fragmentation Trap: 5 Barriers Preventing Regional Scale
The Regional Giants: Caribbean Conglomerates Operating Across 8-13 Markets
The barriers are structural:
Customs delays: 4-8 weeks for intra-CARICOM shipments (vs. 7-10 days Miami)
No B2B platform: No regional procurement system. No business-matching programs
Logistics fragmentation: Moving goods within CARICOM costs more per km than shipping externally
Meanwhile, the conglomerates scale effortlessly. GraceKennedy just expanded ScotiaProtect insurance into Bahamas, Barbados, and Turks & Caicos—going from 1 to 4 countries in 2026. Massy acquired Agostini's pharma distribution in Jamaica, consolidating regional reach. Republic Bank bought banks in DR and Barbados.
The gap? Conglomerates have legal teams, logistics networks, and capital to absorb customs inefficiencies. SMEs don't.
🧩 THE 9-LAYER DECODE
Layer 6 (Trade & Integration): Theoretical free movement (CSME, OECS Economic Union). Practical reality: regulatory mismatches, customs delays, limited logistics support. A Dominica processor faces the same barriers as a Belize exporter, but policy treats them separately.
Layer 5 (Private Sector Climate): No regional "Scale-Up Fund" targeting the Missing Middle. National development banks offer small-business loans, but rarely end-to-end growth support.
Layer 8 (Institutional Capacity): Fragmented agencies. No single body coordinates SME export promotion regionally. Value limits for simplified export schemes are too low to be commercially viable.
💡 THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH
The region is building logistics hubs (Jamaica's $1.1B Caymanas SEZ) for a market that doesn't trade with itself.
When mid-sized firms can't scale regionally, they either stay small (competing for limited national demand) or emigrate to Miami/Toronto markets. The region loses the dynamism that regionally active firms bring—jobs, tax revenue, supply chain depth.
The fix isn't rocket science:
Harmonize SME definitions across CARICOM (create a central registry of scale-ready firms)
Launch a "CARICOM Scale-Up Fund" ($500M, targeting firms earning $1-10M with regional expansion plans)
Create a regional B2B platform (digital marketplace connecting Caribbean manufacturers to procurement opportunities)
Eliminate customs inefficiencies (single-window clearance, harmonized standards)
The irony: Guyana has the capital (oil windfall, $3.6B NRF). Jamaica has the infrastructure (logistics hubs). Trinidad has dormant manufacturing capacity. If these three coordinated, they could create the regional market Jamaica is betting on. Without it? We keep building warehouses for goods destined for Miami.
Next Briefing (May 15): Why Guyana can't compete—until energy costs drop 74%.