In a high-level working meeting held in Port-au-Prince on April 27, 2026, Haiti’s Minister of Commerce and Industry James Monazard held strategic talks with Pierre Vauthier, the leading representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Haiti, to advance cooperation on strengthening the country’s food supply chains and unlock economic potential across high-growth agricultural sectors.
During the discussions, Vauthier articulated FAO’s formal commitment to long-term support for the development of Haiti’s food production and export sectors, singling out the domestic mango industry as a primary area of focus. Haitian mangoes have long been recognized by global trade analysts for their untapped significant export potential that has yet to be fully scaled, making the sector a strategic priority for inclusive growth.
Minister Monazard welcomed FAO’s planned intervention, noting that mango production was once a core driving force of Haiti’s national economy, capable of generating widespread income and trade revenue when supported by targeted infrastructure and policy coordination. Beyond mangoes, Monazard drew attention to two additional high-potential strategic sectors: artisanal and industrial fishing, and cocoa cultivation. Both sectors, he emphasized, hold substantial untapped capacity for increased value addition and widespread job creation across rural Haitian communities that have long faced economic stagnation.
By the end of the talks, the two sides reached a concrete agreement to launch a new cross-institutional joint commission, bringing together Haiti’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, FAO’s local country office, and Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture. This coordinating body will align stakeholder efforts to advance the structured, inclusive development of all three priority sectors, eliminating fragmented planning and overlapping initiatives.
Both participants also underlined the critical need to deepen private sector engagement, particularly by centering the input and participation of local entrepreneurs already operating in mango, fishing, and cocoa sectors. This inclusive approach, they agreed, is essential to building a collaborative, environmentally and economically sustainable development model that benefits local communities rather than external stakeholders alone.
During the meeting, several concrete priority intervention areas were formally identified to guide initial work. For the mango sector, key priorities include upgrading national quality control systems, standardizing product labeling, and modernizing packaging infrastructure to meet international export standards. For the fishing sector, plans focus on expanding vocational training programs for small-scale artisanal fishermen and distributing appropriate, sustainable fishing equipment to boost productivity without depleting local fish stocks. For cocoa, the core priority is building local processing capacity to convert raw cocoa beans into high-value derivative products such as premium chocolate, dramatically increasing the domestic added value of Haitian cocoa exports rather than shipping unprocessed raw materials abroad.
Formalization of a official collaborative framework for these initiatives will get underway in the coming weeks, with the first working sessions of the joint commission expected to convene by early summer. The meeting concluded in a warm, cordial atmosphere, with both parties expressing shared satisfaction with the progress made and reaffirming their commitment to continuing detailed negotiations to move these development initiatives forward, ultimately supporting broad-based, inclusive economic growth across Haiti.