AGRICULTURE Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy says many challenges regarding the food import bill have to be addressed. He is of the view that CARICOM and Latin American countries have the capacity to produce many products currently being imported from countries outside of the region.
Responding to President Donald Ramotar’s call to have the food import bill reduced, while addressing the 6th meeting of the Hunger Free Initiative, at the International Conference Centre on Thursday last, Dr Ramsammy said the real challenge is to address the issues of non-communicable diseases with the change in food consumption patterns.
He said the Caribbean’s food consumption pattern has changed, and added that there isn’t a shortage of food in Guyana to reduce the amount of food products imported.
According to Ramsammy, because of the many non-tariff barriers among CARICOM and Latin American countries, it’s easier for CARICOM countries to import items from North American countries than from CARICOM.
He noted that a substantial part of the food import bill of CARICOM is meat and other products that can be produced or replaced by products from the region.
He pointed out that Guyana is now self-sufficient in chicken, and imports that commodity only in emergency situations, which is a significant change from what had previously obtained.
“It would be a cheaper alternative (in) keeping the resources within the region. These are the things we have to look at,” he emphasized.
He said that, only recently, Trinidad announced it is now going to be growing onions, garlic and potatoes.
“Guyana is doing the same now. Pepper, (which) we import a lot in this region, can be produced in Guyana. A lot of the spices that represent our culture can be produced locally,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sergio Gracia, Agriculture point person for CARICOM, said the food import bill is estimated at around 4 billion dollars per year.
He noted that a study was conducted on the total food import bill two years ago; and with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Caricom Secretariat is looking at utilizing more the agriculture potential of Guyana and Belize, Suriname and other countries in Caricom.
He said that a Caricom action plan is looking to do the following: reduce the food import bill; increase the consumption of locally produced foods, which most likely have higher nutritional value than the imported foodstuff; and use current agri activities to increase income generation at the rural population or the wider population.