On March 17 and 18, during a series of workshops being hosted by the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) in collaboration with the Antigua and Barbuda Bureau of Standards (ABBS), Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) owners in Antigua and Barbuda will be exposed to five CARICOM standards, namely:

• CARICOM Regional Standard Specification for Labelling of pre-packaged foods;
• CARICOM Regional Code of Practice General Principles – Food hygiene
• CARICOM Regional Standard Specification for pre-packaged water;
• CARICOM Regional Code of Practice for pre-packaged water; and
• CARICOM Regional Standard Specification for grading of agricultural produce – Part 7: Pineapples.

These workshops are one of the activities being undertaken under a project being implemented by CROSQ, and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to improve market access and competitiveness for SMEs. The standards to be discussed are 5 of a total of 34 normative documents (standards and codes of practices) being developed under the project.

According to the Project Manager, Dr. Michael Seepersaud, “the objective of the four half-day workshops is to familiarize relevant stakeholders with the five standards, as well as to raise their awareness on how the developed standards can be used to promote and improve the competitiveness of their businesses.” Participants will also gain knowledge on the CROSQ Standards Development Process and the role of SMEs in this process to develop regional standards and technical regulations.

Business owners wishing to register to participate in the workshops can contact ABBS for registration information. Further information on the CROSQ/IDB-MIF SME project can be obtained by contacting CROSQ at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .