BRUSSELS, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, on Wednesday, urged the international community to support the Caribbean’s efforts to advance sargassum valorization, calling for scalable and sustainable responses to the sargassum crisis affecting the Caribbean region.
Addressing the third European Union-Caribbean Global Gateway Conference on Sargassum here, Mitchell said that the “time has come to move from research to results.
“Our islands cannot wait for another wave of sargassum to tell us what we already know that we must turn this challenge into an engine for sustainable growth, job creation, and environmental renewal,” he told the delegates to the conference convened within the framework of the Global Gateway Forum.
The event has brought together high-level decision-makers, industry leaders, academics, and financial institutions from across the Caribbean, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Europe. The aim is to accelerate the shift from pilot projects to scalable, sustainable, and commercially viable solutions to the region’s growing sargassum challenge.
Prime Minister Mitchell told the conference that Grenada is committed to transforming what has long been perceived as an environmental burden into a catalyst for resilience, innovation, and green economic growth.
However, as he emphasized the urgency of collaborative, action-oriented partnerships, Prime Minister Mitchell called on the international community to support the Caribbean’s efforts to advance sargassum valorization through three strategic measures.
He stated that these were immediate technical assistance measures to establish robust monitoring systems, enhance laboratory testing capabilities, and deploy modular pilot units capable of demonstrating commercially viable value streams within the next six to 12 months.
In addition, the Grenadian prime minister called for what he described as blended finance and grant support to de-risk early-stage investments and empower community-based enterprises through targeted incubation programs and workforce development initiatives.
He is also urging market and policy support to stimulate sustained demand via public procurement, facilitate regional trade access, and support the development of standards and certification mechanisms essential for market integration.
The conference here is organized under the auspices of the EU–LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA) and represents a significant milestone in fostering tangible cooperation between the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
It also serves as a strategic stepping stone toward shaping actionable outcomes in the lead-up to the EU–CELAC Summit 2025.
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