The Marketing & National Importing Board Act 1973 established the MNIB to market and sell Grenada’s agricultural produce, not marketed under statutory authority and find markets locally, regionally, and internationally for agricultural produce.
The Marketing & National Importing Board (MNIB) continues to push forward its mandate to export fresh produce and be a pillar for food and nutrition security throughout the tri-island state, distributing approximately 3 million pounds of farmers’ produce to local, regional, and international markets.
The organisation is highlighting positive performance for fresh produce export in 2021 and 2022, despite major setbacks experienced by exporters due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Airport closures, lack of access to flights, and flight cancellations between 2019 to early 2021 severely impacted fresh produce export with many exporters sustaining consecutive losses and high rates of spoilage.
Despite this, the Board is recording a positive trajectory for fresh produce export. July- December 2021 showed that the MNIB exported 29,763 pounds of produce, including mango, soursop, and breadfruit, with soursop being the main export crop. Fast forward to January-July 2022, MNIB exported 45,871 pounds of produce to various markets including Trinidad, the USA, and the UK.
In 2021, the Board made significant advancements in fresh produce export, recording a 100% improvement in export sales performance. Other initiatives to improve export performance include a full review of the Board’s export policy, the launch of an eCommerce website geared at enhancing export marketing and the ease of doing business with international customers, and the commissioning of an export processing room at the Board’s main pack house facility. This cold storage facility will improve the quality of fresh produce while minimizing losses. Additionally, improvements to the Board’s export policy were critical to ensuring that the organization mitigates the occurrence of delinquent export accounts while ensuring that valued farmers and harvesters receive timely payments for their crops.
As it relates to quality assurance and certification; MNIB continues to maintain its FDA certification, issued by the US Food and Drug Administration for export to the United States. Export of fresh soursop continues to be on an upward trajectory. Grenada’s soursop industry has this advantage since Grenada is the only country that can export the fruit in its fresh form to the United States.
MNIB
Is this the same MNIB PM Mitchell is thinking of closing???