With regional food security now firmly anchored high on the list of the region’s priorities, the seventh International Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA) Technical Symposium held a particular significance when set against the backdrop of the ongoing food security discourse ensuing in the region. The symposium was delivered in Port-of-Spain from Tuesday May 14 to Thursday May 16, with the deliberations focusing on the reminder issued by Joseph Cox, CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General responsible for Economic Integration, Innovation and Development, regarding the critical importance of agriculture in the future Caribbean.
Reportage in the Tuesday May 14 of the Jamaica Observer quoted Cox as saying that the deliberations on the poultry industry in Port-of-Spain were taking place against the backdrop of the region’s wider current preoccupation with shoring up its food security bona fides. Contextually, he noted that the poultry sector was being compelled to confront the various challenges facing the wider regional agricultural sector, not least, climate change, land degradation, water scarcity and market volatility, all of which he reportedly said, threatened the viability of the sector. The senior CARICOM official also noted that the regional poultry sector had also been a victim of broader geopolitical challenges that had led to what the Jamaica Observer report described as “pervasive logistical challenges” and “knock-on supply chain bottlenecks and delays.”