Above: the Kingston Container Terminal

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica showed a 26 percent year-over-year increase in export earnings between January and September 2011, according to Vitus Evans, president of the Jamaica Exporters’ Association.

Total exports for the period were approximately $1.3 billion, according to the data, which was produced by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.

“The JEA is acutely aware that the only way Jamaica can emerge from our economic crisis is through a thriving export sector,” Evans said.

Evans was speaking Tuesday at the JEA’s Breakfast Forum in New Kingston, where he was joined by Industry Minister Anthony Hylton.

The Minister said he would seek to engage Jamaica’s partners in CARICOM “more systematically” to help drive growth in the export sector through what he termed “economic diplomacy.”

Last week, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller called for increased intra-regional trade within CARICOM during a visit with Trindiad’s High Commissioner.