President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday said that CARICOM has the competitive advantage to position its food market as high-value and specialised.
According to a statement from the Office of the President, he told investors and key enablers virtually at the Carib-bean Agri-Food Investors Conference that countries need to create a structure, where agriculture production is one component of a “highly integrated food production system”.
It was the latest of admonitions by Ali about the regional potential although there is growing concern that none of these fora is yielding substantial investments and results in the drive to cut the CARICOM import bill and enhance food security.
The President said that with a consensus across the region on the need to enhance food security, efforts could be made to overhaul the system and revolutionise food production.
Ali said that the region needs to think big and envision a framework which will amplify the production of traditional crops, boost the growth of non-traditional crops and facilitate their rapid movement while lowering their overall production cost.
Proximity
He adverted to the proximity of the region to the North American market and highlighted the potential of the production of fish and shrimp (via aquaculture), honey, spices, cocoa, coffee, barley, corn and soya, among local fruits and vegetables and non-traditional crops.
“How do we use these opportunities to create value, expand the market and produce high-value crops? Because it must be targeted, high-value crops that we’re looking at, whether it’s the very strawberries that you’re importing, the grapes that you’re importing, whether it’s the spices, green leafy vegetables, broccoli or cauliflower”, he urged.
He added: “We’re speaking about creating a business and economic model that works; that works for the investor, works for the people and works for the country in the context of what we want to achieve, and that context is food security and to create a high-value market.”
The statement said that the President noted that one of the critical issues in creating the integrated system and high-value market is transport and logistics. This, he said, has been the “greatest bugbear of interregional trade”.
“So there are tremendous opportunities in the transport and logistics aspect of the food production system, beginning from primary production to highly specialised value-added production”, he said.
The President suggested that agricultural opportunities available in northern Brazil be examined and that the food production system be re-engineered to utilise the potential of moving goods through Guyana and into the Caribbean and North America.
With this option, the President said, food would be able to get to the Caribbean and further up north through Guyana in less than 72 hours. This, he explained, is only possible if there are tangible investments in the transportation, logistics and food hub.
“That is the first positioning I want to put to you, what constitutes the regional food hub, the infrastructure that must come in supporting that food hub, supporting the transport and logistics opportunity, the distribution opportunity, the value-added opportunity that will come”, Ali said.
The President also spoke of the need for investments in technology and modernised agriculture.
“The integrated food production system is changing. With technology, you can now produce the same amount of potatoes that you normally produce on 100 acres of land, on less than five acres of land”, he said
He stated that the region’s food import bill stands at more than US$6b and all efforts must be made to reduce that amount.
“Recently, as a region and here in Guyana, we are investing heavily in technology and examining the viability for other crops, for example, wheat and barley. We have a lot of land that can have high production of barley that can satisfy the entire regional demand and go all the way up north and take a big share of that market”, he said.
The President also cited transformation of Guyana’s feed production, which started in 2021 with the planting of corn and soya.
“By the time we get up to 2025-2026, we will not only be nationally secured, but we will be in a position where we can produce all the corn and soya for feed production throughout the region”, he declared.
Guyana holds lead responsibility for agriculture, agricultural diversification and food security in the CARICOM Quasi-Cabinet. A food terminal is being constructed in Barbados but details of how it will operate are still to be finalized.
CARICOM leaders last week met US Vice President Kamala Harris in The Bahamas and the issue of food security was raised.
A statement by the CARICOM Leaders “noted the progress of the work of the High-Level Committee on Food Security between the USA, CARICOM and the Dominican Republic resulting from the Summit of the Americas process. They reaffirmed that the matter of food security must continue to be given priority as part of the enhanced Caribbean-US engagement. They emphasized that, to this end, commitments already made must be implemented, and that the two sides should examine additional ways to address this challenge, which affects the Region and the global community”.
