GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have achieved 57 percent of the target to reduce the five billion US dollar regional food import bill by 25 percent by 2025.
A statement issued following the first CARICOM Ministerial Taskforce (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security, where Caribbean countries detailed their production data for 2022, noted that products such as cocoa, dairy, meat, root crops, fruits, and poultry have already reached 96.13 percent, 84.36 percent, 72.28 percent, 70.91 percent, 70.77 percent, and 70.19 percent respectively for the targeted production volume set for the year 2025.
“Moreover, countries such as Guyana, Belize Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Dominica, and Jamaica have made significant advances in the production of commodities such as ginger, turmeric, corn, soya bean, root crops, fruits, cocoa, poultry, meat, fish, table eggs, and dairy,” the statement noted.
The statement also indicated that last year, Guyana produced an estimated 20,195 MT of ginger and turmeric, 144,289 MT of root crops, 21,870 MT of fish, and 40,749 MT of coconut.
During last month’s special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), Trade Policies for Animal and animal Products, a Regional Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy, Special Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) guidelines for 19 commodities, and alternative SPS settlement mechanisms were approved.
Guyana’s Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, noted that these are outstanding achievements for the Taskforce, explaining that with these mechanisms in place, a level playing field is being created, making way for more straightforward trade in agricultural products intra-regionally.
“These four achievements are testimony to the hard work of the MTF. Suppose we are allowed to increase intra-regional trade. In that case, we will be well on the way to reducing the regional food import bill, which is the ultimate goal of CARICOM in keeping with its food security agenda. In just one year, collaborative efforts among member states have yielded much success,” Mustapha said.
Mustapha, who chairs the MTF, said several priority areas had been identified for 2023, including agriculture insurance and financing, trade and E-agriculture, resource mobilization, and trade support. He said this will help to advance the efforts of the MTF and CARICOM as it works towards achieving ‘Vision 25 by 2025’.
The next CARICOM MTF meeting is scheduled for March.
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