The Ministry of Agriculture will use a targeted approach in 2022 to reduce the country’s food import bill, which stands at 200 million EC dollars.
Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar said that addressing the food import bill cannot be done outside the national food consumption bill.
“Even with an increase in food production, the country’s food import bill is still too high with not enough concentration on the production of significant quantities of food which are currently importing”.
Caesar said import substitution has to be addressed, stating that with expected growth in the tourism sector, there will be a demand for more vegetables, fruits, beef etc.
“The 2022 budget is going to see a focus not only on recovering the losses and damage due to the volcanic eruption and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but charting a unique pathway working with local producers in certain niche areas”.
In December 2020, Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar issued a call for citizens to eat more locally produced food in 2021.
Caesar noted while the call was made before to ‘buy local’, the present negative resultant implications of COVID-19 demand that SVG is more targeted in achieving this goal of increasing local consumption.
In 2020 the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said it was committed to reducing its US$5B food import bill by 25% in the next five years (25 in 5) as it implements ifs food and nutrition programmes.
However, the Organisation said its strategies to achieve this goal must be grounded in a framework involving the Community, the private sector, and international donor partners and bolstered by multilateral support, particularly in policy Intervention, institutional strengthening, investment, etc., sector financing.
According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Jamaica spends over US$1 billion; the Bahamas, US$1.5 billion; Trinidad & Tobago, US$1 billion, Barbados, US$450 million; Guyana, US$450 million; Haiti, US$1.5 billion and Cuba, US$2.5 billion in the importation of food.
The Caribbean possesses plenty of arable lands and is renowned for many of its crops, yet it largely remains unable to feed itself adequately.
Experts at the University of the West Indies urged Caribbean countries in May 2020 to invest more in ensuring regional food security.
