AWARE that this may very well be the last chance to get it right and create correct conditions for seriously addressing the accumulated (old and new problems) that still hinder regional integration, Guyana and its Caribbean Community (CARICOM) partners have been taking decisions at every recent annual regional summit to hasten the pace of enhancement of regional cooperation.

Addressing the Agri-Investment Forum in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, on August 19, CARICOM Chair and Suriname President Chandrikapersad Santokhi announced that Paramaribo is making lands available to regional farmers to support the region’s plan to reduce its food- import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.

At the same forum – the second of its kind in three months since Guyana hosted one last May attended by CARICOM Leaders – President, Dr Irfaan Ali, with responsibility for Agriculture and Food Security in CARICOM, reported that the region is on target to cut its food-import bill by the agreed 25 per cent.
He delivered a Guyana report card with positive marks for livestock and poultry; new investments and interventions, projects and advanced projections and reported on several new developments in the regional agricultural arena, including closer Guyana-Trinidad & Tobago cooperation.

The President also repeated an open invitation for more regional public and private sector investment and cooperation in and with Guyana, in pursuit of common goals, especially relating to development of the new infrastructure necessary to drive and widen agricultural production and consumption regionally.

But COVID, Ukraine and continuing global supply-chain disruptions have also had the positive effect of encouraging more Caribbean people (and governments) to realise the importance of local foods.

St Vincent & The Grenadines’ flour and arrowroot-based products are more appreciated today in the aftermath of the grain shortages from the world’s two largest producers, Russia and Ukraine; Dominica is depending more on Vincentian flour and Guyana rice; an inter-island banana market is developing; Guyana is experimenting with different varieties of wheat for eventual domestic and regional consumption and export; Saint Lucia has hosted separate banana, mango and breadfruit festivals – and with St Vincent & The Grenadines-identified selected fruit and vegetable crops that boost body immunity, while promoting exhibitions of the many unknown uses of apricots, citrus, bananas, breadfruit and breadnut, cherries, golden apples, guavas, mangoes, pineapples, soursop and other popular and largely wasted Caribbean fruits.

Needs are also creating new opportunities for Caribbean exports to be expanded to new neighbouring and global destinations as the region seeks to better balance its trade balance with the rest of the world and improve its ability to more and better manufacture, consume and export more of its local foods, vegetables and fruits.
For example, Johnson & Johnson has decided to do away with talc as the base for its powders and will now switch to corn starch and countries most affected by the Ukraine war are rethinking and reorganising their trade and supply arrangements to better survive for much longer down the road.

Guyana can make a marked contribution to the production and marketing processes for greater export, but like in all other cases, with a commensurate level of interest and participation, particularly by the nation and region’s youth.

However, by its established record since 2020, this PPP/C administration has steadily proven its commitment to regional integration and trade, cooperation and collaboration, in true CARICOM sense and spirit; and President, Dr Irfaan Ali cannot but be overly commended for the leadership and stewardship he’s brought to agriculture, arguably the most important sector at home and across the Caribbean. He deserves another salute!