1 week Ago By Vishanna Phagoo
ROGER Roach is expected to step down as president of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) today at the association’s annual meeting, having served the maximum tenure allowed in the role. Following the 2023 Annual General Meeting, Roach assumed the TTMA presidency, becoming the 67th person to hold the position since the association was founded in 1956. According to Section 8.
2 of the TTMA’s By-Laws, “No person may hold the office of President for more than two consecutive years without a break in service.” In an interview with Express Business at the TTMA headquarters, Tenth Avenue, Barataria,on Monday, Roach reflected on his two-year tenure, highlighting the achievements made under his leadership and emphasising the manufacturing sector’s vital role in diversifying the national economy. Roach said when he first took on the voluntary role, his focus was on growth—especially since manufacturers were grappling with foreign exchange (forex) constraints emerging from Covid-19 restrictions.
“The major issue facing manufacturers coming out of Covid-19 was the availability of forex to retool and purchase their raw materials to get their factories back up to full speed. We were able to advocate and negotiate and successfully get the Ministry of Finance and EximBank (Export Import Bank of Trinidad and Tobago) to put the forex window in place at the EximBank. That, I believe, helped a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises to get forex, to purchase their own materials, to, ramp back up the operations from a working capital standpoint,” said Roach.
Under the EximBank Manufacturing Forex Facility, the TTMA announced in a daily newspaper advertisement that 284 companies accessed funds, US$337 million was disbursed, and there was a US$47 million increase in funds between 2023 and 2024. Expanding on his growth objectives during his tenure, Roach noted that one of his key goals was to double non-energy exports within five years, beginning in 2020. “We got a figure of about $3.
3 billion, and this is core manufacturing – food and beverage, chemicals, printing and packaging, wood and wood-related products or petrochemical-related – and we said we will double exports in five years. As of 2024, that figure reached about $6.2 billion, so we’re about 90% of the goal as we speak, and we expect in 2025, with a mere 5% growth in manufacturing, we would have reached the goal we set out for ourselves,” Roach said.
He stressed that this success didn’t happen overnight, emphasising the tremendous effort that went into achieving it. “One of the things we realised is that there were companies already exporting for themselves. They had the bandwidth, organisational strength, export departments, and people doing research and analytics.
And they would seek out new markets on their own and penetrate new markets. There were other companies, small and medium-sized businesses, who did not have that organisational strength or that deep resource of talent within the organisation to be able to do that. So, we decided that we will take manufacturers on the road, and we put a heavy focus on trade missions.
” In the last two years, the TTMA hosted 12 trade missions, with the most recent one concluding on April 1. This mission was the TTMA’s first trade mission on the seas, where 25 companies were able to get a feel of the markets in Puerto Rico, St Thomas, St Croix, St Maarten, Martinique and Barbados. The association will be hosting another trade mission next month to Jamaica.
He said the results of the trade mission are expected to materialise within three to six months, as further research or logistical challenges may need to be addressed before exports can begin. “It is better you do the preliminary work up front so that when you start exporting, you don’t then realise that the price is not competitive or major competitors are doing these promotions when you’re not doing it. Where the best places to advertise, whether it’s traditional media, social media, whether it’s to put more focus on point of sale, all of these things to be analysed to successfully penetrate a new market,” Roach explained.
He also shared that sometimes, while Caribbean and foreign markets are interested in local products and are willing to introduce the products and services to their market, there are logistical issues or regulatory issues that must be solved before local companies can begin to export. “We did a trade mission to Curacao, and one of the things we met is that there was no direct shipping route so even those people want your products, can’t get it there. Recently, we negotiated over a period, and the Ministry of Trade and Gulf Shipping was heavily involved and working with the Shipping Association.
We got a direct ship that goes to Curacao every two weeks,” he highlighted. As for the regulatory hurdles, Roach shared that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Paula Gopee-Scoon, when leading the trade mission, was instrumental in unlocking some of the political hurdles and lowering some of the non-tariff barriers that are being faced in the market. Speaking on having 12 trade missions in two years, Roach added, “If you think about it, that’s a trade mission every other month.
But during this time, we had a lot of first-time exporters. Companies that have never exported before are now earning forex for themselves by not only getting their initial order but repeat orders as well.” Roach also noted that these businesses are repatriating the US dollars back into T&T by exporting in this magnitude.
“We have data that shows that all these businesses are repatriating the US dollars back into T&T, and we are getting a repatriation of US dollars in excess of the money they have accessed from EximBank. So, it is not only working, but the companies are also being true to themselves and reinvesting these funds into themselves for further growth – in institutional capacity, plant and machinery, and expansions.” Roach continued: “Those things are panned out actually in numbers because between 2019, where the figure was $3.
3 million and as at the end of 2024, it is $6.2 million. Apart from a 17% decrease during the year of Covid-19, when it went down to $2.
7 million, in 2021, the growth was 43%; 2022 – 26%; 2023 – 15%; and 2024 – 9.3%. Now, that’s a compounded annual growth rate, this is growth on top of growth.
The manufacturing sector has continued to grow, and we expect that to continue in 2025 because manufacturers are out there looking for new business and to expand their businesses.” Noting the introduction of the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate in Couva, Roach said he hopes to see initiatives like these continue, given the diversification stance taken by the Government. “In T&T, we would also like to see an improvement in the ease of doing business.
So, whether it is Chemistry, Food and Drugs, the Bureau of Standards, the efficiency of the port, efficient payment and regulation of factory terms, we have to work together to make sure that it becomes easier to do business, whether it is Town and Country Planning or the EMA (Environmental Management Authority). So, as the Government is focused on the digital transformation of ministries, a lot of these digital transformation initiatives not only affect ministries but also affect the actual State enterprise that is carrying all the government policy. So, the digital transformation of ministries and State enterprises will go a long way in improving the ease of doing business in T&T,” shared Roach.
As Roach steps down, he hopes TTMA will continue its annual Trade and Investment Convention, grow the membership further and look for investments. “I would like to see the continuation of growth and the policy of taking businesses overseas because there’s no limit to that,” he said. Now that Roach has completed his nine-year tenure on the board and concluded his term as TTMA president, he said he will be turning his attention to his garment business, Lazuri Apparel.
.
