The Regional Agri Investment Forum and Expo II got underway in Port of Spain on Friday with calls for the Caribbean private sector to fully back the region’s efforts to significantly reduce its multi-billion dollar food import bill.
“I join my colleagues, who spoke before and appeal to the private sector, not to be resistant to these developments and these initiatives, but to get on board and be the distributor of the local produce rather than being the commission agent of the imported produce,” host Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, told the more than two-hour opening ceremony.
“It is not going to happen overnight because food takes time to grow, animals take time to grow, use that time to change the formulae of trade, to change the distribution pattern. If we are going to feed ourselves by doing local production and you are a distributor, get on board in the local production,” Rowley said, emphasising that is why the event is called an investment forum.
“Invest now of your time, your finance, your expertise in your business and in your countries, in your region and be part of the solution and not be part of the problem,” Rowley said, acknowledging that there were many business houses in the region that “make a good profit of being the commission agent to somebody who is farming outside of our region.
“There is nothing wrong with that, no shame in that, but the time has come to put your foot down in your yard…and help to build the capacity within the region,” he said, telling small farmers that the initiative to develop the region’s agricultural sector is not designed to take them out of the market.
“We are not here talking about displacing or replacing you. We are talking about giving you more capacity, but there has to be systems so that your input can be successful for you and your families.”
Earlier, chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Private Sector Organisation (CPSO), Gervase Warner, said that over the last few years, the region’s food import bill was in excess of US$4 billion.
“That’s before the crisis of inflation that we have right now,” he told the gathering.
“Against this backdrop there is the emergence of some worrying protectionist policies that I know in our negotiations we have been trying to work against,” Warner said, adding that there were “big food-producing countries” that were now implementing food export bans…
“Imagine that the World Trade Organisation had to actually have a meeting and ban the banning of food exports for humanitarian purposes. That’s the kind of protectionist environment in which we are finding ourselves with a need to innovate and to address our stories ourselves.
“Food security has clearly become front and centre, a critical issue for our own survival. It is very clear to us we are not going to get help from our colonisers of the past, we are not going to get help from big developing countries…This is our problem for us to address.”
He acknowledged that the region “imports a lot, in fact we import over US$4 billion of food and agri-products from outside of the region and that does not even take into consideration all of the economic activities associated with producing that.
“So there is a huge opportunity for us here in the Caribbean and I am so proud to see that together we are starting to take on doing this,” he said, adding that the CPSO has done some analysis of the $4 billion import bill.
“We find that there is at least US$1.2 billion of opportunity and that’s our 25 per cent we are going after by 2025.”
Warner said the region could do without importing cereals and staples which could be grown in Belize, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, meat and poultry, vegetables, fruits and nuts, available in all Caribbean countries.
The three-day Agri-Invest and Expo 11, is a follow up to the successful initiative held in Guyana in May and is being attended by several CARICOM leaders, regional private sector stakeholders including financial institutions.
Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali, who has lead responsibility for agriculture in the CARICOM quasi cabinet, in updating the conference, noted that the region had over the last few months “made significant progress” in its quest to reduce the regional food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
“In Jamaica, for example …we have seen strong progress in achieving the target….As of March 2022, they have reached 26 per cent of their target with solid performances in onions, Irish potatoes in particular,” Ali said.
He said in the case of Trinidad and Tobago strong performances were registered particularly in poultry.
“For a target of 83,000 metric tonnes, an amount of 66,500 metric tonnes was produced up to June 2022.”
He said in Guyana over the first half of the year there has been steady progress in every category.
“Our aim is to ensure that by the end of 2024 we are completely self-sufficient in…corn and soya. And that requires the capital investment of the rest of the region and we are open and ready for this partnership with the private sector.”
Dr. Ali said in the case of poultry Guyana has attained a performance mark of 61 per cent, while for livestock overall, it had an attainment of 80 per cent
Ali said in St. Lucia production levels of fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry and pork have outstripped targets by June 2022. For instance, the target volume was set at 91.4 metric tonnes for fruit and vegetables but by June 2022 production was reported to be 1.39 million metric tonnes.”
But he said that St. Lucia had, during the same period, imported 8.2 million metric tonnes.
‘So although we saw a significant growth there is still a huge gap in the import and the production,” Ali said, adding that member states have begun to demonstrate their commitment to the removal of barriers to trade within CARICOM.
‘He said the establishment of a food terminal in Barbados with Guyana is a demonstration of such commitment and that similar discussions are ongoing with Antigua, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and other member states.
“So as we bolster production and productivity at the national level we are also ensuring there is easier access to markets,” he added.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said Caribbean people will now determine how the region deals with the various crises that affect food security and production.
“Our expectations have to change and our ability to be able to do things differently must also come to the table. We have to start eating what we grow and growing what we eat, and we have to do it not only because of the economic requirements but because of the health requirements.”
Mottley said while the region grows most of the healthy food for the population “most of our youngsters eat macaroni pie and fries”.
She added: “We’ve got to change that. We have to work with the fast food organisations…and get them to change their menus. It is not good enough for us to make speeches about colonialism…if we are not prepared to change people’s access to the foods,” she said.
(CMC/BT)
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