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  • Dovey Magnum Says “Be Patient

    Dovey Magnum Says “Be Patient

    International dancehall recording artist Dovey Magnum is preparing for an action-packed summer season, kicking off a multi-month slate of new creative projects with the upcoming release of her fresh single “Be Patient”.

    Produced by Nigel Angus at Kingston-based Palm Tree Flow Records, the upcoming track puts the Jamaican artist’s one-of-a-kind melodic style and sharp songwriting craftsmanship on full display. For Magnum, this single marks just the opening of a flood of new material she has spent months crafting for her global fanbase.

    Unlike many artists who simply fit their vocals around pre-made instrumentals, Magnum says she takes command of every beat she touches, driven by an authentic, lifelong passion for music. “I don’t just sing on a beat I dominate it because I genuinely love music. I have so many new songs to drop but I am just pacing myself. Like the title of my new song says, Be Patient,” the artist explained.

    Born Simsky Harrison and raised in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Magnum first rose to mainstream prominence in 2017, when her breakout hit “Bawl Out” became a viral smash that pushed her into the spotlight both on the island and across international dancehall circles. In the years following that breakthrough, she built on her momentum with a string of fan-favorite tracks, including “Prayer Me A Use And Win”, “Sex Slave”, and “Female Shella”.

    Now looking ahead to 2026, Magnum says her motivation and drive to create remain just as strong as they were when she first entered the industry. While she acknowledges the dancehall space has shifted dramatically over the past decade, she remains confident in her established place in the genre, anchored by her unchanging love for creating music.

    “Di game change up in many ways but one thing still remains. Bad a artiste a bad artiste and Dovey Magnum a bad artiste suh I care zero about what is happening or who is happening because me sure my space secured. My love for music is just as strong as it was when I just started,” she shared.

    Right now, the artist is deep in collaboration with producer Nigel Angus and publicist Karl Durrant to finalize “Be Patient” ahead of its release, and map out the rollout for her upcoming slate of new music planned for the rest of the year.

  • Johnson, Lewis take top honours at Hubert Lawrence Memorial TT Classic

    Johnson, Lewis take top honours at Hubert Lawrence Memorial TT Classic

    On a busy Sunday of competitive play at the UWI Gymnasium Mona Bowl in Kingston, Jamaica, two underdog storylines converged to cap off the second edition of the Hubert Lawrence Memorial TT Classic, with Azizi Johnson of Wolmer’s Boys’ School and Gianna Lewis securing the men’s and women’s Open Singles crowns respectively. Both champions walked away with hard-earned victories made all the sweeter by past disappointments that had kept them from the top spot in major tournaments.

    For Johnson, Sunday’s win represented long-awaited redemption. At the tournament’s inaugural 2025 staging, he was on track for a deep run before cramps and fatigue derailed his campaign against New York-based competitor Odingo Mitchell, leaving him empty-handed in the Open division. That result followed his 2024 victory in the “B” Singles bracket, a solid performance that nonetheless left him hungry for the top title.

    Johnson faced a similarly tough test in this year’s Open Singles final against Logan Royes, dropping the opening set 9-11 before finding his rhythm. He clawed back to take the next two sets 11-9 and 11-5, then held off a late comeback from Royes to clinch the fourth set 12-10 and secure the championship.

    On the women’s side, Lewis pulled off a stunning upset that broke a long-standing pattern against the person she knows best: her younger sister Tsenaye Lewis, the 2023 Jamaican national women’s singles champion. Gianna has turned in consistent strong results across local Jamaican tournaments in recent years, but had repeatedly fallen short in major finals, most often against her sister. To reach the championship match, she also defeated another top Jamaican talent, Keeara Whyte, who holds both the national women’s singles and Under-19 titles.

    After closing out the win, an elated Gianna celebrated the milestone, telling reporters: “This is only the second time I’ve beaten her in a final!” while holding up two fingers to mark the rare victory.

    In the “B” Open Singles division, Rudolph Sinclair of the Pembroke Hall Table Tennis Club claimed the AnyBet Hubert Lawrence Memorial crystal trophy after a hard-fought four-set win over UWI Games champion and national representative Chris Lyn, with final scores of 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 12-10. Sinclair’s path to the final required a dramatic comeback, after he fell behind teammate Sean Wallace two sets to zero before rallying to win 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7. For his part, Lyn also endured a grueling five-set semi-final against Conroy Henry, securing a 7-11, 12-10, 14-12, 19-17, 11-7 victory to advance to the title match.

    The Hubert Lawrence Memorial TT Classic, first launched in 2025 with corporate support from gaming brand AnyBet, was created to honor the late Hubert Lawrence, a beloved Jamaican athletics broadcaster, analyst, and author who was also an accomplished competitive table tennis player. Today, it ranks among the largest single-day table tennis tournaments in the English-speaking Caribbean, and Sunday’s event drew a capacity crowd of spectators eager to cheer on the island’s rising and established table tennis talent.

    Danielle Douglas, General Manager of Post to Post Betting Ltd, which operates AnyBet, highlighted the company’s ongoing commitment to the event and its core mission. “We are proud to support a tournament that honors Lawrence’s legacy, while promoting sports development and youth empowerment,” Douglas said. She added: “Table tennis is a sport that continues to showcase Jamaica’s competitive spirit and talent, and we hope to fuel its continued growth while reinforcing the values of discipline, teamwork, and healthy competition. This sponsorship also reflects our broader commitment to nurturing sporting excellence across disciplines while celebrating the talent, passion, and sportsmanship at the heart of this tournament, and the enduring legacy that inspires it.”

  • Bunting flags Jamaica’s productivity crisis

    Bunting flags Jamaica’s productivity crisis

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — During Wednesday’s Sectoral Debate in Jamaica’s House of Representatives, Opposition spokesperson for Productivity, Efficiency and Competitiveness Peter Bunting delivered a stark assessment of the country’s long-term economic trajectory, warning that decades of slow growth have left Jamaica trapped in stagnation even after achieving macroeconomic stability.

    As the Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern laid out, Jamaica’s average annual real GDP growth has hovered around just 1% for multiple decades, placing it among the lowest-performing developing economies in the world. Bunting outlined a cascade of persistent economic weaknesses: labour productivity has actually contracted over the past quarter century, inflows of foreign direct investment have plummeted from previous peak levels, gross fixed capital formation has weakened, and real wages have remained under consistent downward pressure. Compounding these challenges, he added, a persistent brain drain continues to drain the country of its most skilled workers, who leave in droves to seek better professional opportunities abroad.

    “In short, we have stabilised the economy without transforming it,” Bunting told the legislative body. He noted that leading global economic bodies including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development all share a consistent consensus on the core requirements for long-term sustained growth: nations that prosper over generations do so by continuously boosting productivity, strengthening institutional governance, investing in human capital, fostering a culture of innovation, and building a policy environment that allows domestic and foreign businesses to compete and scale. Nations that fail to prioritize productivity improvements, he argued, eventually hit an insurmountable growth ceiling marked by stagnant wages and shrinking economic opportunity — a position Jamaica finds itself in today, per his assessment.

    A key target of Bunting’s critique was the recent sectoral progress report from Audrey Marks, Minister of Efficiency, Innovation, and Digital Transformation, who pointed to rising volumes of online transactions, expanded electronic payment infrastructure, and increased digital government services as evidence of meaningful progress. Bunting pushed back on this framing, arguing that increased digital activity does not equate to improved productivity.

    He pointed out that Jamaican businesses still grapple with widespread systemic inefficiencies, including redundant reporting requirements, fragmented government administrative systems, and unreasonably lengthy approval processes for critical business activities. Even with digital expansion efforts, more than 70% of all transactions in Jamaica remain cash-based, and adoption of the Bank of Jamaica’s central bank digital currency JAM-DEX has remained negligible despite the central bank’s extensive outreach and investment. Inter-bank payment systems still operate under constraints rooted in outdated institutional structures that do not align with the demands of a 24/7 modern digital economy: the Bank of Jamaica’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system only operates between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., while commercial banks’ Automated Clearing House (ACH) still processes payments on a next-day basis.

    “Technology is an enabler, not a substitute for reform,” Bunting stated. “If inefficient processes are simply transferred from paper to computer screens, what emerges is not efficiency but digital bureaucracy. Productivity gains arise when processes are fundamentally redesigned, responsibilities are clarified, duplication is eliminated and institutions become more responsive. Technology can facilitate that transformation, but it cannot replace it.”

    Bunting emphasized that the trend of Jamaica’s labour productivity over the past 25 years should be a wake-up call for every member of the legislature. Today, he confirmed, Jamaica’s overall labour productivity — measured as real GDP per worker — remains lower than it was a quarter century ago. For context, he compared this performance to peer economies: over the same 25-year period, U.S. labour productivity grew roughly 50%, while China’s saw an expansion of more than 400%. Even among direct regional competitors in Latin America and the Caribbean, which Jamaica competes with for foreign investment and export market share, productivity gains have been far stronger than Jamaica’s results.

  • NASA ends mission after loss of Mars probe

    NASA ends mission after loss of Mars probe

    After six months of unexplained silence from its pioneering Martian orbiter, NASA announced this Wednesday that it is formally bringing the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission to a close. Over its 11 years of unplanned extended operations, the probe rewrote scientific understanding of the Red Planet, leaving a legacy that will shape planetary research for decades to come.

    Launched with an initial projected lifespan of just one to two years, MAVEN slipped into orbit around Mars in September 2014, tasked with answering a longstanding cosmic question: how and why Mars lost most of its thick early atmosphere, transforming from a warm, wet world capable of hosting liquid water on its surface into the cold, arid desert we see today. It continued to beam back invaluable data and support surface operations far longer than mission planners ever dared to hope, until contact was abruptly lost with the spacecraft in December 2024.

    Though NASA confirms MAVEN is believed to still remain in a stable orbit around Mars, repeated attempts to reestablish contact over the past six months have gone unanswered. The agency has officially acknowledged the loss of the craft, though it will launch a full formal review to pinpoint the root cause of the communications failure, according to statements released Wednesday.

    For scientists who spent years working on the mission, MAVEN’s contributions extend far beyond its original mandate. Shannon Curry, an astrophysics professor and key MAVEN mission researcher, called it “the best Mars mission ever” in comments to reporters Wednesday. The probe’s measurements gave planetary scientists an unprecedented look at atmospheric escape—the process through which gases in a planet’s atmosphere leak out into interplanetary space. Currey noted that “We now have a better understanding of atmospheric escape at Mars than at any other planet, including Earth.” This body of data has turned Mars into an unparalleled natural laboratory for studying atmospheric evolution on rocky planets throughout the solar system and beyond, she added.

    Tiffany Morgan, head of NASA’s exploration programs, echoed that praise, emphasizing that MAVEN “profoundly advanced our understanding of Mars’s atmosphere, climate history, and habitability.” Beyond its core scientific work, MAVEN filled a critical secondary role: it served as a reliable communications relay, relaying data and commands between Earth and NASA’s fleet of rovers and landers operating on the Martian surface. With MAVEN now offline, that responsibility will be transitioned to other operational orbiters currently circling the Red Planet to maintain uninterrupted contact with surface missions.

  • Wheatley: NEST programme targeting young scientists for all early childhood institutions

    Wheatley: NEST programme targeting young scientists for all early childhood institutions

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s national government is advancing a transformative early childhood education initiative, with plans to bring the innovative Nurturing Early Scientific Thinking (NEST) programme to every early childhood institution (ECI) across the island by the close of 2025. The groundbreaking programme, which focuses on building scientific reasoning from toddlerhood, completed a successful pilot phase between February and June 2025, with 25 participating ECIs across the Kingston and St Andrew region. According to Dr. Andrew Wheatley, Jamaica’s Minister of Science, Technology and Special Projects, the pilot sites were intentionally selected to represent a diverse cross-section of the country’s early education ecosystem, including institutions located in zones of special operations, low-performing facilities, and fully compliant high-functioning schools. Minister Wheatley made the official announcement during his Tuesday address to the Sectoral Debate in Jamaica’s House of Representatives. The pilot programme incorporated a robust capacity-building framework for educators: 25 participating teachers completed a specialized Training of Trainers course led by officers from Jamaica’s Early Childhood Commission, with ongoing mentorship support provided by the Association of Science Teachers of Jamaica. “The evaluation is positive. The evidence base is built. The scale-up plan is ready. We are now rolling NEST out nationally,” Minister Wheatley confirmed. The phased national expansion will target 500 ECIs across all seven of Jamaica’s education regions and all 14 parishes by the end of 2026, with rollout already underway in Kingston, St Andrew, Portland, St Mary and St Thomas. The next wave of expansion will reach St Ann, Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland, before the final phase brings the programme to St Catherine — home to 107 ECIs — and Clarendon, completing full national coverage by the end of 2025. Minister Wheatley emphasized that universal access to the programme is a core policy priority, arguing that the curiosity and questioning nurtured in early childhood lays the groundwork for the entrepreneurs, innovators, and problem-solvers that Jamaica’s future depends on. “That journey begins not at university, but at age three,” he noted. NEST represents Jamaica’s first structured, systemic effort to embed foundational skills of inquiry, problem-solving, and evidence-based reasoning into the earliest stages of formal education. The programme is centered on upskilling ECI educators to deliver developmentally appropriate, play-focused science learning, paired with custom-created children’s books and hands-on STEM activity kits designed specifically for young learners. Minister Wheatley explained that the focus on early childhood addresses a longstanding gap in Jamaica’s approach to STEM education. For decades, efforts to grow scientific thinking have been concentrated at the secondary and tertiary levels, a strategy he described as fundamentally misaligned with how children develop cognitive skills. “We must start cultivating scientific minds at the basic and primary level,” he stated. Reporting by Lynford Simpson

  • PNP demands resignation of FLA CEO following integrity commission report

    PNP demands resignation of FLA CEO following integrity commission report

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s main opposition party, the People’s National Party (PNP), moved on Wednesday to push for the immediate exit of Shane Dalling, Chief Executive Officer of the island nation’s Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA). The demand comes in the wake of the recently tabled Integrity Commission Report 37/2026, which uncovers widespread institutional corruption, manipulated official documentation, and a total collapse of accountability frameworks during Dalling’s tenure.

    For the opposition, the documented lapses uncovered by the independent integrity watchdog leave no room for Dalling to continue leading the critical national security agency, with his departure framed as a non-negotiable first step toward restoring public trust.

    The damning report details a series of alarming failures at the FLA: live ammunition owned by private citizens has vanished from the authority’s secured vault; a dead man’s identity was fraudulently used to create sales documentation connected to a licensed firearm dealer; and critical electronic records were permanently lost after the agency failed to implement a basic backup system.

    “This cannot be brushed off as simple mismanagement,” stated Fitz Jackson, Member of Parliament and the PNP’s National Security spokesperson. “What we are seeing is a complete breakdown of law, order, and public confidence at the very agency tasked with regulating lethal weapons across Jamaica. No chief executive who has overseen falsified records, missing ammunition, and what amounts to destroyed evidence should be allowed to hold this position for even one more day.”

    Beyond calling for Dalling’s resignation, the PNP is pressing Minister of National Security Dr. Horace Chang to take far-reaching, decisive action to address the commission’s findings. While Chang has already stated that the FLA is moving to update protocols for firearm and ammunition storage and internal operations, the opposition argues that incremental procedural changes are not enough to resolve the deep-rooted accountability crisis at the agency.

    The party is additionally demanding a full, independent public investigation into every misconduct allegation laid out in the Integrity Commission report, with a requirement that all final findings be released to the Jamaican public.

    PNP leaders emphasized that the systemic failures exposed in the report do not only damage the reputation of the FLA — they also erode public trust in the government’s ability to oversee critical national security institutions. Reaffirming their position, the party noted that upholding public confidence must be the top priority for any responsible government, and repeated their calls for Dalling’s immediate resignation and a full public accounting of all the misconduct outlined in the watchdog’s report.

  • Jumpers Lamara Distin and Nia Robinson get podium finishes in Finland

    Jumpers Lamara Distin and Nia Robinson get podium finishes in Finland

    TURKU, Finland – The 2026 edition of the Paavo Nurmi Games, a top-tier World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, delivered strong results for Jamaica’s track and field contingent Wednesday, with high jumper Lamara Distin and long jumper Nia Robinson both stepping onto the podium to claim medals.

    Distin delivered a near-perfect performance in the women’s high jump competition, clearing five consecutive opening bars on her first attempt to hold the lead for most of the contest. The Jamaican jumped to a height of 1.91 meters to take second place, but fell just short of clinching gold when she failed three consecutive attempts to clear 1.97 meters. The top spot on the podium ultimately went to Ukraine’s Yulia Levchenko, who overcame a rocky start to the competition. Levchenko needed all three attempts to clear the opening 1.78m height, required two tries to get over 1.94m, and successfully cleared 1.97m on her third attempt to secure the win.

    In the women’s long jump, Robinson rebounded from a rough opening to take third place. The Jamaican fouled on her first two attempts, putting her at risk of elimination early, before logging a 6.58m jump on her third attempt. She improved her mark in the fifth round to 6.61m with a 1.4m/s tailwind, a new outdoor season best for the athlete, that secured her a podium finish. Jamaican teammate Ackelia Smith finished just outside the top three in fifth place with a jump of 6.53m. American athlete Monae’ Nichols took home the gold with a winning jump of 6.88m, while Great Britain’s Jasmin Sawyers took silver with a 6.62m season best.

    Four additional Jamaican athletes finished fifth across their respective events, just outside podium contention. Assinie Wilson, who entered the men’s 400m hurdles as the athlete with the fastest qualifying time, crossed the finish line in 48.98 seconds to take fifth. The race was won by Slovenia’s Matic Gucek, who clocked 48.47s for gold, with Great Britain’s Alastair Chalmers taking silver (48.53s) and Botswana’s Kemorena Tisang securing bronze (48.66s).

    In the men’s discus throw, Roje Stona notched a throw of 66.15m to finish fifth. Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh dominated the event to take gold with a 69.13m throw, followed by Sweden’s Daniel Stahl (67.40m) for silver and Australia’s Matt Denny, the current world leader in the event, who took bronze with 67.26m. Finally, in the women’s shot put, Danniel Thomas-Dodd recorded a throw of 18.78m to round out the results for Jamaica in fifth place. American Chase Jackson won the event with a 20.66m throw, followed by the Netherlands’ Jessica Schilder (20.18m) and Canada’s Sarah Mitton (19.47m) to complete the podium.

  • Red Hills El Clasico returns with bigger stakes

    Red Hills El Clasico returns with bigger stakes

    One of Jamaica’s most anticipated community grassroots football competitions is preparing to throw open its doors next month, drawing squads and fans from across St Andrew and surrounding regions. The Red Hills El Clasico Corner League is scheduled to launch its 2026 edition on June 7 at the Belvedere Sports Complex, located in the heart of Red Hills, St Andrew. Over the course of 12 weeks, 10 local teams will compete in a grueling contest that wraps up on August 23, with the top performers walking away with a combined total of more than $600,000 in cash and other prizes.

    In the years since its launch, the community-run tournament has cemented its status as one of the most beloved premier local sporting events in the area. It consistently draws skilled up-and-coming players and thousands of passionate supporters, not just from Red Hills itself, but from neighboring communities across the region.

    Heading into the new season, all eyes will be on defending champions Gusman, who will enter the tournament gunning to hold onto their title after a dominant 2025 campaign. Standing directly in their path will be last year’s beaten finalists, Mosquito Valley, a squad hungry to improve on their previous performance and lift the championship trophy for the first time.

    The eight other teams joining the title fight are Belvedere, East Kirkland Heights, Happy Grove, Rock Hall, Walkers Hill, Package, Sterling Castle, and Coopers Hill. Every side arriving at the complex this year will share the same core goal: upset the reigning champions and claim the coveted league crown for their own community.

    This year’s installment has secured unprecedented backing from a expanding roster of corporate and institutional sponsors, a clear marker of the tournament’s growing popularity and deep cultural impact across the region. The 2026 sponsor lineup includes major local and national partners: the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), Universal Service Fund (USF), Foska Oats, Lucozade Sport, Double 7, Lion Pride, Romeich Entertainment, CB Cabling, and Chicken N Tings.

    For event organizers, the tournament has always been about far more than just 90 minutes of football. Shane Clarke, manager of the Red Hills United Football Club (RHUFC), which oversees the competition, explained that the event fills a critical dual role: it gives talented young local players a high-profile platform to display their skills to a wider audience, while also fostering connection and cohesion across the area’s diverse communities.

    “This event is geared towards bringing out and showing the young talents, and of course, building a vibe in the community as usual,” Clarke told local outlet Observer online. Clarke added that the overwhelming success of previous years’ tournaments directly helped organizers attract more high-profile corporate partners for the 2026 competition. “This year we have some major sponsors. Some sponsors saw last year’s staging and wanted to be a part of it this year,” he explained.

    With expanded financial backing, a larger prize pool, and one of the most competitive fields in the tournament’s history, event organizers are gearing up for what they say will be the most exciting installment of the league to date. “It is going to be the best staging yet from what we’re seeing, so far… it’s going to be 12 weeks of intense competition and a nice little vibe up in the place,” Clarke said.

  • Abinader swears in new committee to strengthen mental health care in prisons

    Abinader swears in new committee to strengthen mental health care in prisons

    In a formal ceremony held at Santo Domingo’s National Palace, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has officially inaugurated the Dominican Committee for Penitentiary Mental Health, a groundbreaking intersectoral body designed to elevate mental health care for three key groups impacted by the country’s correctional system: incarcerated people, prison staff, and the families of both groups. This launch marks the latest milestone in the Dominican Republic’s multi-year effort to overhaul and reform its national prison system.

    Speaking to attendees at the inauguration, President Abinader framed the new committee as a critical step forward in the country’s work to humanize correctional facilities and upgrade the rehabilitation services at the core of incarceration. He went on to outline the significant progress the nation has already made under its overarching National Mental Health Policy, pointing to tangible developments that include adding 105 specialized psychiatric hospital beds across the country, completing construction on new regional psychosocial care centers, and advancing plans for a dedicated national neuroscience research institute in the coming years.

    In addition to launching the new oversight committee, Abinader announced that three purpose-built, specialized mental health correctional facilities located in Azua, La Vega, and San Pedro de Macorís will welcome their first patients this very week. This rollout cements the Dominican Republic’s position as one of the first nations across Latin America and the Caribbean to build a fully integrated, comprehensive system for addressing severe mental health disorders within a correctional setting.

    The newly seated committee draws expertise and collaboration from a wide range of stakeholders, pulling together representatives from multiple government agencies, leading national universities, established healthcare institutions, and leading professional mental health associations. Its core mandates include upgrading the quality of clinical mental health care across all correctional facilities, expanding academic and clinical research on penitentiary mental health needs, increasing specialized training for correctional and medical staff working in prisons, and modernizing outdated service delivery models across the entire prison system.

    Officials involved in the initiative emphasize that its overarching priorities center on upholding the human dignity of all people connected to the correctional system, boosting long-term rehabilitation outcomes for incarcerated individuals, strengthening broader community public safety, and guaranteeing consistent access to specialized mental health support for both inmates and the correctional staff who supervise and care for them. Moving forward, the committee also plans to launch two additional long-term projects: a dedicated Penitentiary Health Teaching Center to train the next generation of care providers, and a national centralized research repository that will collect data to guide future evidence-based policy changes for the prison system.

  • Dominican Republic promotes premium cocoa at Brussels industry forum

    Dominican Republic promotes premium cocoa at Brussels industry forum

    The Dominican Republic has stepped onto the global stage to highlight the exceptional quality and untapped international potential of its cocoa sector, hosting the Dominican Cocoa Forum in Brussels. The event forms a key part of the inaugural Dominican Week, a cultural and trade initiative taking place across Belgium and the Netherlands, designed to open new doors for Dominican agricultural products in European markets.

    Stakeholders from across the global cocoa supply chain gathered at the forum, bringing together local Dominican cocoa producers, award-winning European chocolatiers, trade entrepreneurs, institutional trade representatives, and senior decision-makers from the European cocoa sector. The core goals of the gathering were twofold: to strengthen long-term bilateral trade relationships between the Dominican Republic and European markets, and to raise the international profile of Dominican cocoa among global buyers.

    One of the central agenda items for the forum was a detailed update on the rollout of the official “Dominican Cocoa” Geographical Indication (GI) Seal. This certification initiative is crafted to do more than just verify and protect the national origin of Dominican cocoa; it is also positioned to boost the product’s global brand recognition and elevate its market value. Event organizers stressed that the GI certification will reinforce the already strong reputation Dominican cocoa holds for consistent quality, ethical sustainable production, full supply chain traceability, and the unique flavor profiles tied to the country’s distinct growing regions.

    Joan Margarita Cedano, the Dominican Ambassador to Belgium, addressed attendees during the opening session, framing Dominican cocoa as a global gold standard for fine-flavor cocoa. She noted that the product has long been recognized for its one-of-a-kind taste characteristics and rigorous adherence to international production standards. Beyond formal speeches, the forum included a full schedule of expert-led presentations, panel discussions focused on sustainable production practices and origin certification protocols, and guided product tastings. These activities gave European buyers and large chocolate manufacturers a hands-on opportunity to experience the unique qualities that have secured the Dominican Republic’s place among the world’s top premium cocoa producing nations.