BAS head: Agriculture sector not yet up to meeting growing demands for healthier foods

The head of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) has suggested that farmers and other producers may not be able to meet the increasing demand for more locally-produced healthy foods just yet.

Chief executive officer of the BAS James Paul said while farmers welcomed initiatives aimed at creating healthier food options for Barbadians, players in the agriculture sector have not reached the level of production needed to support that push.

“There is no question at all that we have the capability of producing healthier products in the country but we cannot do this if, on the other hand, we are barely producing what is currently needed with respect to some products and in terms of other products that we are not producing at all. So that is the essential thing…. How do we increase agricultural production?” he said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.

“Truthfully, the only way we can increase it is by trying to ensure that the environment for increasing the overall production of [an] agricultural commodity is favourable for it.”

Paul’s comments came in response to calls on Tuesday from Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Business Sandra Husbands for a larger investment in agro-processing healthy food products for local consumption.

He pointed out that even when healthier local options were made available, producers were still at a disadvantage as they had to compete with imported products.

“One of the unfortunate things that we also face is that there are competing alternatives in terms of the agricultural sector, in that we face competition from imports for less healthy products and also subsidised products. [These] products that come in from overseas that are less healthy but they are subsidised from the country of origin – whether it be the United States or Europe – and they are sold to the local Barbadian public, as opposed to the healthy alternative,” Paul lamented.

“We need to vigorously promote our locally-produced products and more healthy alternatives [compared] to the imported products that are actually coming in at the same time.”

To this end, the BAS CEO said consumers must be educated about the value of locally-produced products.

He contended that too many of them still believed that “once they get a fancy branded product coming in from the US or Europe or wherever, some of them claiming to be organic, that somehow it is more healthy”.

“Sometimes we are producing even better, cheaper, and more healthy alternatives right here in Barbados, and then we don’t get support from the consuming public. I think that those are fundamental issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, Paul believes the recent implementation of the National School Nutrition Policy, which seeks to improve students’ eating habits, will lead to a bump in sales for vendors of healthy produce.

However, he stressed: “The challenge that we face in the sector is that we have now to be able to be consistent, in terms of maintaining the level of production to where consumer demand is. That is something that we have to be pushing constantly.”

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb ]]>