Confidential · Prepared for: Office of the Prime Minister of Jamaica · HelloAG AgOS · Cayuga Group Inc.
Situation Assessment
Jamaica's Food Supply Chain Has a Structural Intelligence Gap
Jamaica's food security depends on a supply chain that operates with significant information asymmetry. Farmers do not know what buyers need. Hotels do not know what farmers are growing. Government does not have real-time visibility into price shocks, supply disruptions, or production shortfalls — until they appear in retail markets weeks later.
This gap is not a new problem. It is an infrastructure problem. Jamaica has capable farmers, favourable agro-ecological conditions, and institutional buyers willing to source locally — but no shared digital layer connecting them. The result is that Jamaica imports US$840 million of food annually, including fresh produce that Jamaican farms can and do grow.
HelloAG was built to close this gap. It is not an agricultural reporting system. It is Jamaica's Agricultural Operating System — the digital infrastructure layer that makes the food supply chain legible, traceable, and actionable for every actor in it simultaneously.
US$310M
This is the import substitution opportunity. Of Jamaica's US$840M annual food import bill, US$310M represents commodities that Jamaican farmers can produce locally — onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, broiler chicken, herbs, yam, and root vegetables. HelloAG TAII connects those farmers to the hotel and institutional buyers who currently source them from abroad.
Key Intelligence Findings
What the Platform Is Showing Right Now
01
Jamaica's National Food Security Index stands at 74.2 / 100 — a stable zone, and the strongest recorded position in three years. This score did not exist before HelloAG. It is now computed weekly from AMIB price data, supply availability signals, and climate risk indicators across all 14 parishes.
02
Three parishes are in food security stress — Trelawny (65), St. Thomas (64), and St. James (62). These are not coincidentally Jamaica's three highest-density tourism parishes. Hotel procurement import dependency is a food security risk. The tourism supply gap is a food security variable, not just an economic one.
03
The Tourism Agricultural Intelligence Infrastructure (TAII) links hotel procurement systems directly to registered Jamaican farmers. Scaling TAII nationally — with government endorsement and institutional backing — would redirect an estimated US$60M in annual hotel food spend to Jamaican farmers in Year 1.
04
Every registered farmer receives an Agricultural Business Readiness Score (ABRS) — a 0–100 composite rating that makes them visible to banks, exporters, and institutional buyers for the first time. The St. Mary pilot cohort averages ABRS 74 — Grade A. This score is the mechanism through which HelloAG creates bankable, investable smallholder farmers at national scale.
05
Jamaica's Commodity Volatility Index stands at 31 — elevated. Thyme supply is in critical shortage for the third consecutive week. Price is J$345/kg — 34% above seasonal norm. This signal was available in HelloAG eight days before it appeared in retail market reporting. Early warning at this speed is only possible with live digital infrastructure.
06
The Digital Twin Simulation Engine allows government to model scenario impacts before they happen. A Category 4 hurricane at intensity level 4 targeting the southern coast for 14 days reduces Jamaica's FSI by 16 points, generates J$2.8B in production losses, and requires emergency imports of approximately 42,000 metric tonnes. This analysis is available in real time.
J$29B
Five-year forex retention target. If HelloAG scales to national coverage by 2031, the modelled foreign exchange retained in the Jamaican economy through import substitution is J$29 billion — equivalent to approximately 3.5% of current annual import expenditure. This is the macro-economic case for treating HelloAG as national infrastructure, not a startup.
Recommendations
A Specific Partnership Proposal
HelloAG is not requesting grant funding at this stage. The platform is live, the infrastructure is built, and the pilot data is real. The partnership requested from the Government of Jamaica is institutional in nature — the kind that creates enabling conditions for national scale.
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1
Institutional Endorsement for National Rollout
A formal government endorsement — positioned at Denbigh 2026 — that HelloAG AgOS is the designated agricultural intelligence infrastructure for Jamaica. This creates the institutional credibility required for JHTA hotel onboarding, development bank engagement, and CARICOM replication discussions.
Lead agencies: MALF · TEF · Tourism Linkages Council
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2
RADA/AMIB Data Sharing Agreement
A formal data sharing agreement between HelloAG and RADA enabling HelloAG to receive weekly AMIB price reports via API. This doubles the price data coverage and unlocks parish-level FSI accuracy. RADA receives HelloAG's aggregated ABRS and production intelligence in return.
Lead agencies: RADA · MALF
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3
National Farmer Registration Drive
A joint government-HelloAG registration campaign targeting 5,000 additional farmer enrollments in Year 1. Extension agents using the HelloAG Agent Portal as their field registration tool, with the ABRS score becoming the standard agricultural creditworthiness metric recognised by Jamaica's development banks.
Lead agencies: RADA · JAS · Development Finance Institutions
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4
FSI as an Official National Indicator
Establish the HelloAG Food Security Index as an official national performance indicator — tracked quarterly in PIOJ's Economic and Social Survey Jamaica and reported to Cabinet alongside inflation and unemployment. This institutionalises the metric and creates government accountability for food security improvement.
Lead agencies: PIOJ · MALF · Cabinet Office
The Ask — What We Need from Government
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Partnership, Not Funding
HelloAG is privately financed and operationally live. The government partnership we are seeking is institutional — endorsement, data access, and regulatory alignment. The platform does not require public funds to operate.
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RADA/AMIB Data Access Agreement
A formal API data sharing arrangement — structured as a public-private data partnership. Enables HelloAG to compute a nationally accurate FSI. Precedent exists in STATIN and JMetS data agreements with private sector.
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Denbigh 2026 as the Launch Moment
A government presence at HelloAG's Denbigh showcase — ministerial level preferred — signals institutional backing to the JHTA hotel network, international development banks, and CARICOM partners who will be watching. This is the inflection point for national adoption.
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Tourism Linkages Council Integration
JHTA, TEF, JAMPRO, JMEA, and JAS already sit together on the Cabinet-created Tourism Linkages Council. HelloAG TAII is the operational delivery mechanism for that Council's mandate. Formal recognition of this alignment enables immediate institutional onboarding of the full JHTA membership.
Olu Roberts
Founder, HelloAG / Cayuga Group Inc.
Mile Gully Ecosystems · St. Mary, Jamaica
M.P.S. Controlled Environment Agriculture — Cornell University
B.Sc. International Agriculture — Cornell University
helloagriculture.com
hello@helloagriculture.com
June 2026 · Confidential
Confidential · HelloAG AgOS · Cayuga Group Inc. · helloagriculture.com · June 2026