AGRICULTURE Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy yesterday expressed concern over the high food importation bills of countries in the Caribbean Region.

He was delivering the feature address to a gathering, at the Grand Coastal Inn Hotel, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara, of representatives from various fisheries organisations around the Caribbean.
The occasion was the opening of a workshop on the implementation and mainstreaming of regional fisheries policies into small-scale fisheries governance agreements in the Caribbean.
The four-day programme is being hosted by the Fisheries Department of the Agriculture Ministry, in collaboration with the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat, the Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisation (CNFO) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).
In his speech, Ramsammy noted that the Caribbean can consider itself as a food-secure Region and stressed that Guyana is a food-secure country.
“Food security is not just the amount of food we have to eat but the right kind of food, so nutrition security is an important part of it,” he emphasised.
Can compete
Nevertheless, the minister maintained that, outside of developed countries, such as those in Western Europe and North America, no sub-region in the world can compete with the Caribbean in terms of food and nutrition security.
However, he stated that this comes at a cost, part of which is the high food importation bills that Caribbean countries have, noting that the vast majority of what is imported into the Region can be produced and supplied right here.
“Seven of our countries in CARICOM have a per capita food importation bill of over US$500, on an annual basis, when the global average in developing countries is just US$66 per capita. It means that we are importing more than 10 times of the average citizen in developing countries. That must be a rejected reality; we must change that reality and we have the capacity to do so,” he insisted.
He said, at present, Trinidadians are consuming tilapia imported from China and questioned whether all the demands of that country could not be supplied by countries within this Region instead.
According to Ramsammy, Trinidad’s tilapia requirements can, in fact, be satisfied just by the aquaculture operators in Guyana and the infrastructure already exists and the operators would be willing to meet those needs.
He said that although they have the capacity to produce large quantities, the operations are downscaled because the market does not exist.
Meanwhile, the minister announced that Guyana will be hosting the Caribbean Week of Agriculture in October this year.
“We are honoured and we commit to make this Caribbean Week of Agriculture one of the biggest and one that really meets its obligation in this Region,” he asserted.
Important role
He said fishing is an important part of food production in Guyana and it should have a critical and important role in the Caribbean Week of Agriculture.
Moreover, Ramsammy highlighted the importance for Guyana to achieve the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS).
He observed that Guyana is already a fish-exporting country but it is necessary to reach certain standards in order for locally produced products to be able to enter certain markets.
“One of the key binding constraints of the Jagdeo Initiative in the development of agriculture in this Region is that we must reach standardised Sanitary and Phythosanitary Standards, that we must have certain standards that all of us meet together so that we are seen as a single space,” he reiterated.
In addition, the minister advised that traceability legislation is critical and it must be in all Caribbean countries. Therefore, the common fisheries policies for the Region must be adopted and implemented immediately.
According to him, enough has not been done to make people aware of what is being done in the Caribbean when it comes to fisheries.
“This workshop is partially addressing that issue, making sure that our fisherfolk are very much involved in this policy, not only in the crafting of it, not only in the adoption of it but in its implementation, so that they are aware it’s their policy and they must be part of implementing it,” he said.
Genuine problem
Ramsammy mentioned, too, that illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is a genuine problem in the Caribbean for the industry and the economy and that this is also being addressed at the workshop.
He emphasised that research in the area of fisheries must not only be about the biology of a species, but also of the process and the stocks.
“We’ve done a great job in assessing our marine stocks in the Caribbean and we need to be a little more serious,” he remarked.
He indicated, further, that over-fishing is another legitimate problem which must be studied in order to come up with an important way forward.
It is an important issue and will be resolved by the various authorities working together, he noted, acknowledging that fisherfolk must realise that rules and regulations are not in place to punish anyone, but rather to ensure that marine stocks are sustained.