Farm ministry ‘targets food import bill’

With the island’s food import bill reaching upwards of $700 million dollars, the Ministry of Agriculture, along with other key players in farming and food production, is currently implementing several steps to not only control spending but also introduce fresh job opportunities as the island diversifies its crop production.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Indar Weir, during a recent interview with the Government Public Affairs Department on the state of Barbadian farming, said that though the food import bill cost was indeed high, most of the spending was for products not readily sourced here on the island, such as wines, coffee, and other processed goods.

Though he admitted that all food produce sought after by Barbadians could not be all planted here, trials of select produce had already begun on the island, including the much-used broccoli crop.

Weir said: “Primary agriculture goods that are imported, are things like broccoli; broccoli takes a high chunk of our food import bill, and so does white potatoes or what people refer to as English potatoes.

“What are we doing to address this… we have already started some trials on broccoli, and those trials have proven to be very successful. We are now going to expand those trials across other plantations and other farms, to make sure we get it right.

“Broccoli is a very temperate crop, and therefore we have to be sure we find the right varieties in order to be able to do a successful broccoli crop.”

After COVID-19’s outbreak in 2020, the demand for poultry slumped owing to a falloff in tourism arrivals. This decline also contributed to the usual complaints from poultry producers that once again, they were competing with importers, who would often bring poultry products, despite local availability.

According to Weir, his ministry is well aware of the issues and has taken steps to help reduce this imported competition for suppliers.

He said: “What it is that we are doing when we import poultry; if it’s processing [its] fine, but we equally have to make sure that the processors are prepared to work with our poultry producers as well, and not just use excuses to bring in poultry. This is something that we have flagged, and are going to make sure that if our local poultry producers can do it, then we would use local poultry.

“The other big one, is then how we deal with the fact that Barbadians have a huge appetite for chicken wings. Our poultry industry will not be able to produce all the chickens that we will want to consume… but it also very unhealthy.

“If we are going to make sure we change lifestyles in Barbados, reduce the cost of health care in Barbados, then we have to get everybody on board. Getting everybody on board simply means that we can transition to using other parts of the chicken.”

Despite water scarcity, high food import levels and uneven demand for products, Weir said he remains confident in farmers’ ability to not only grow extensively after COVID but to expand holistically, giving Barbadians the ability to invest in the industry.

He said: “We have to overcome some of the challenges that confront us, but we got this. We are going to continue to work on it, we understand what is required of us, [and] it’s not going to be a short term solution I can tell you that upfront.

“We are going to fix those things that we are in control of; poultry industry, pork industry. We are going to pick the ones that are already working and move them to the next level. The ones that would need some time to be worked on, we are working on those and that is why we are working so closely with our farmers.” (SB)