(Jamaica Observer) Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton says 45 per cent of the food imports can be replaced with local produce, which he said would lessen the country’s vulnerability and dependence on imports given the global concerns about food safety. He said even larger nations have become concerned about food security as world production cycles become more erratic, adding that countries like Jamaica would need to spend more time getting consumers to reconnect with local options that provide nutritional value.
Pointing to a recent Ministry of Agriculture study, Tufton said Jamaica has been able to bring down its import food bill from an initial US$800 million three years ago, to US$667 million in 2009 and US$661 million last year. But according to Tufton this is still not enough. “Our position is that where we can replace or substitute this offers tremendous value both in job creation, foreign exchange savings and the vulnerability of over independence on imports,” Tufton told the Observer on Wednesday.
The agriculture minister, in the meantime, said his ministry has targeted specific crops for increasing local production and already major improvements are being seen. He said hot peppers, for example, has for the last three years been a major export crop.
“We now export several containers of pepper mash made from West Indian red peppers and that is the consequence of a deliberate strategy,” the minister said.
Tufton said the ‘Eat Jamaican’ campaign which was launched on Tuesday is aimed at getting consumers to become more sensitised to options available to them locally.
This, he said, should allow for more consistent demand for local produce.
Meanwhile, the farmers’ markets which have been recently established to absorb the glut of a number of local crops could continue for sometime given its success, according to Tufton.
Tufton explained that these farmers’ market allow farmers to be the point of contact with the consumers as opposed to a middleman or a series of middlemen.
“The experience has been quite positive except for those middlemen who have been squeezed out,” he said.
Tufton said more than 20,000 consumers benefited from the last farmer’s markets which were held with some 6,000 consumers showing up for the Portmore market in St Catherine alone.
Tufton explain that some persons have already begun accessing loans from the $40-million glut management fund which was launched recently through the Development Bank of Jamaica for agroprocessing centres.
This loan, he said, will make it more possible for these postharvesting facilities to absorb the excess produce.
