Rachel Renie-Gonzales

Rachel Renie-Gonzales is an e-commerce agri-entrepreneur who has leveraged online platforms to revolutionize food distribution in Trinidad and Tobago. She has created a farm-to-table value chain with the laudable mission of enhancing farmers’ livelihoods, reducing food waste and improving consumer choice. 

Renie-Gonzales co-founded and launched the ‘D Market Movers’ website in 2009, focused on sourcing fresh, local produce for online ordering. The business was the first in Trinidad and Tobago to use an online e-commerce platform to sell local produce and locally-made products. It has since expanded to over 300 farmers (and artisans) with a customer base of over 10,000 online shoppers. 

Over the past 16 years, Renie-Gonzales has increasingly used data-driven systems to tailor her services to consumer needs. In 2022, the business celebrated selling over a million pounds of food since inception. 

Through the D Market Movers Group, farmers are supported and trained in areas of pre- and post-harvest handling, climate resilient strategies, digitization/mechanization and capacity support such as applying for grants or financing opportunities. She believes that by lending technical, strategic and industrial support, farmers can produce optimal output, which, in turn, maintains her supply chains. 

With growth of over 30% per year, Renie-Gonzales has also established several other agri businesses including Farm and Function, which offers locally manufactured and processed frozen fruits that are distributed in T&T, Barbados, and Dominica. The brand’s aim is “to preserve the Caribbean way of life naturally in order to achieve food security for farmers, producers and consumers within the Caribbean.”

Other businesses include a click-and-collect physical grocery store with a smoothie & salad bar, a food design studio specialized in building global brands through a Caribbean lens by providing branding, packaging design and marketing solutions for local and regional food businesses; she also hosts a roaming, farm-to-table dining experience utilizing 95% local inputs in every meal.

She promotes technology as a tool for stimulating local and regional agriculture and was a feature speaker at the TEDx Port of Spain Women 2023 event where she shared her story of entrepreneurial inception and discussed how food shapes our lives. She has been a speaker on both Regional & Global stages as well as consults with international aid Organizations. 

Since 2023, she has encouraged young people to embrace technology, as a mentor and Director at the Youth Business of Trinidad and Tobago. Her accolades include an Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur award, presented to her and business partner David Thomas in 2016.

Most recently, for forging a path that leads to enhanced Caribbean food security and enduring in the face of significant adversity, Rachel Renie-Gonzales is the 2025 Anthony Sabga Caribbean Laureate for Entrepreneurship.