With the Caribbean coming under increasing pressure to mount a robust response to what is now being widely seen as a condition of food insecurity in parts of the region, some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states would appear to be stepping up to the proverbial plate with responses to a challenge that has never before been known to unduly disturb the region.
Last week, reports from Trinidad and Tobago provided news of a private sector investment in a new agro-processing facility, PLANS which, a media report from the twin-island Republic says, is intended to enhance the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) in boosting food production.
The country’s newest food processing facility is reportedly the outcome of a partnership between the founder of a local company SARR Distributors Rayanna Boodram and the now retired Trinidad and Tobago Commissioner of Prisons, Dennis Pulchan.
The owners of the new agro-processing facility, the report says, envisage that it will become “a fully certified entity that makes agro-processing training and equipment accessible to SMEs for low-cost processing and packaging of their raw materials.”
The new agro processing facility was launched with the support of Trinidad and Tobago’s state-run entity Investt, the country’s principal national investment promotion agency which executes its functions under the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. Its primary responsibilities are to implement the investment policies of the government of Trinidad and Tobago and to serve as a point of access for potential foreign investors in all sectors of the economy as well as to facilitate all requirements, including regulatory approvals necessary to establish a business.
Back in August this year, Trinidad and Tobago signaled its preparedness to play a role in shoring up the food security credentials of the region by staging an Agri investment forum which had been preceded by similar events in Guyana and Barbados. The recent enhanced focus on agri investment in the region has come in the wake of recent reports to the effect that the region, its traditional food security bona fides notwithstanding is now under threat from less severe but nonetheless worrisome food security concerns.
Prior to the staging of its August Agri-Investment event Trinidad and Tobago had issued a call for agri-tech projects with the aim of “facilitating business to business meetings for selected companies” a local media report said.
Other media reports emanating from Trinidad and Tobago indicate that PLANS will be offering production services to local small and medium enterprises in the agro-processing sector that will include renting of work stations as well as cold storage for products, consultations, marketing solutions and business development strategies.
Boodram is quoted as saying that the aim of Plans Agro Processing is to provide technical support to small and medium sized agro-processors by offering subsidized services within the facility,” The company’s mission, she reportedly said, is to enhance food processing technologies and the application of food science concepts in Trinidad and Tobago.
““We aim to promote economic stabilization by boosting agri-entrepreneurship in the local agricultural and manufacturing sector,” Boodram says.
