Export Max — JAMPRO's Multi-Phase Export-Growth Programme for Jamaican SMEs

Export Max is JAMPRO's flagship export-capacity-building programme for growth-stage Jamaican exporters, run jointly with the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) and the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC). It has run in successive cohort phases since 2011: Export Max I (2011–2013, 15 companies, reported 33% average export growth), Export Max II (culminating 2017, 20 companies), Export Max III (launched 2011 in official framing but scaled from 2019, roughly 50 companies), and Export Max IV (2024, 57 companies).

Jamaica's official Jamaica Information Service reported that Export Max II's 20 participating companies achieved an average export-sales growth of 213%, created 173 new jobs (a 13% increase across the cohort), generated US$1.7 billion in export earnings and US$703 million in new investment, and that all 20 firms secured at least one new external market in the Caribbean, United States, Canada or United Kingdom. In 2021, Export Max III received a US$1 million investment from Carbyne Capital Investments Ltd to expand capacity for around 50 companies, with a stated goal of moving more than 40 Jamaican firms into new international markets.

JAMPRO's broader investment-promotion work has drawn separate criticism: the labour-rights outlet Equal Times has alleged that JAMPRO under-informs some BPO investors it attracts about Jamaica's labour laws, contributing to worker disputes in call-centre jobs — a critique of JAMPRO's wider FDI-attraction function rather than of Export Max specifically, but relevant context for assessing the agency's overall practice.

Read the full analysis: https://exportmaxja.com