How the Caribbean is positioning itself as a cargo gateway

Forward thinking

Cari Cossio is the station manager at OHL Logistics’ Miami office. She is also the chairman of the board for the Flor­ida Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association. Her company does a great deal of business with Jamaica and the island of Dominica, in particular, but also the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Honduras, El Salvador, Argentina, and Chile. Most of her business is exports of various commodities from the United States to those countries, but Colum­bia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador export perishables such as flowers, fruit and vegetables. The majority of OHL’s freight does go by sea – for example Miami to Honduras is only three days by sea – but the perishables must go by air.

Cossio said Jamaica is importing commodities to support its hospital­ity and tourism business, including paper goods and luxury items enjoyed by tourists. The Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Honduras also import items to support tourism, and goods for manufacturing. Cossio said Guatemala is OHL’s largest importer and exporter, mainly due to the textiles industry. The country imports textiles and machin­ery, mainly from China and Indonesia, then it exports the finished clothing products to several markets.

Panalpina has a large presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, which includes Panama as a distribu­tion hub for the Caribbean and parts of South America. Ferdinand Kurt, CEO Americas for the forwarder, said perish­ables are a key export market for the region, but he said most of Panalpina’s Caribbean and Latin American business was import driven. Globally, Panalpina is very active in telecom, and the Carib­bean usually has a great deal of rebuild­ing and developing going on, which includes upgrading communications. “Honestly, I think today [the Caribbean] doesn’t play a huge role percentage-wise, but I see some potential for the future,” Kurt said.

Lourdes Leon, the owner of Atlantic Overseas Express, Inc., and co-chair of the education committee for the Florida Customs Brokers and Forwarder’s As­sociation, said her company works with the islands, specifically Haiti, Turks and Caicos, and Santo Domingo in the D.R. “South Florida is very important to the islands,” she said. Atlantic Overseas Express mainly caters to the building material and hardware industry, but it also delivers goods to Turks and Cai­cos for tourism. She said she has been working with Haiti for 20 years – with quite a surge in the rebuilding after the devastating 2010 earthquake. With the strong dollar however, business with Haiti has slowed down.

Fort Lauderdale-based all-cargo air­line Amerijet considers the Caribbean a very important market and its core des­tination. To say the carrier flies all over the area is no exaggeration. Amerijet flies Monday through Saturday to Puer­to Rico, six times weekly to Trinidad, four times weekly to Barbados, five times weekly to Panama, Honduras and San Salvador, twice weekly to George­town Guyana and five times weekly to the Dominican Republic – to name just a few. Carlos Gonzalez, senior director of sales for Amerijet, said the carrier’s 767-200 and 767-300 freighters bring in imports to the area including fabric, apparel, consumer electronics, per­ishables and a considerable amount of live animals, including thoroughbred horses, sheep, goats, birds, dogs, cats and farm animals. Puerto Rico, Anti­gua, Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Guyana, Aruba and Curacao are enthusiastic about horse racing so Amerijet transports a fair amount of thoroughbreds to these loca­tions. Central America receives general freight and animals, Gonzalez said, but business with Venezuela has been slow for the past year and a half due to the soft oil prices.

Puerto Rico has had its share of hardship the past couple of years with industries leaving the commonwealth Gonzalez said, but Amerijet still ships perishable products to the island. Addi­tionally, a substantial amount of goods are brought in to support tourism in all the islands, for resorts or businesses that cater to resorts. Gonzalez said the entire region is going to see 2 to 3 percent growth a year for the next 20 years, based on statistics and Boeing projections. He sees no reason why there would be a decline.

In a relatively small geographic area, the potential for trade within the Caribbean region and with the rest of the world is there just waiting to be discovered. The carriers and forward­ers that serve the area have a genuine sense of community, including going the extra mile to help in times of need. For example, the island of Dominica was left in shambles Aug. 27 when Hurricane Erika bore down on it. “They were hit the hardest,” said Christine Richard, Amerijet’s director of market­ing. “We’re there to support the local community not only economically, but helping them export their goods.” Those exports include finished apparel, manufactured goods, vegetables and seafood. And, you never know – that seafood from Dominica might just show up on someone’s dinner table in Dubai.

Which brings up another Jamaican saying: “Every mickle mek a muckle.” Every little bit adds up. or details.

Cuba: The Wild Card of the Caribbean. To read click here.