AHEAD of the 44th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which is scheduled to open on Wednesday, Guyana has a lot to be proud of as it has contributed significantly to the 57 per cent achievement of the region’s ‘Vision 25 by 2025’ target.

The meeting will be held in The Bahamas from February 15-17, 2023, under the chairmanship of that country’s Prime Minister, Philip Davis.

The region’s Ministerial Taskforce (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security recently shared that the region has made significant progress thus far.

It was reported that products such as cocoa, dairy, meat, root crops, fruits, and poultry have already reached 96.13 per cent, 84.36 per cent, 72.28 per cent, 70.91 per cent, 70.77 per cent, and 70.19 per cent respectively, for the targetted production volume set for the year 2025.

Moreover, countries such as Guyana, Belize, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Dominica, and Jamaica have made significant strides in the production of commodities such as ginger, turmeric, corn, soya bean, root crops, fruits, cocoa, poultry, meat, fish, table eggs, and dairy.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali recently noted that the Guyana government continues to open up tens of thousands of acres of land in its bid to expand food production in the country.

The taskforce had also indicated that, for 2022, Guyana produced some 20,195 tonnes of ginger and turmeric, 144,289 tonnes of root crops, 21,870 tonnes of fish, and 40,749 tonnes of coconut.

During the 104th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), trade policies for animal and animal products, a Regional Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy, Special Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) guidelines for 19 commodities, and alternative SPS settlement mechanisms were approved.

In addition to the updates on member states’ production targets, attendees were also brought up to speed on several other notable achievements.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, had said that the outcomes of the COTED meeting were commendable and that, with the approval of the various mechanisms and guidelines, a level playing field was being created, thereby making way for a more straightforward trade in agricultural products intra-regionally.

“These four achievements are testimony to the hard work of the MTF. If we are allowed to increase intra-regional trade, we will be well on the way to reducing the regional food import bill, which is the ultimate goal of CARICOM, in keeping with its food security agenda. In just one year, collaborative efforts among member states have yielded much success,” Minister Mustapha noted.

Minister Mustapha, who chairs the CARICOM MTF, indicated that several priority areas have been identified for 2023. These include agriculture insurance and financing, trade and E-agriculture, resource mobilisation, and trade support.

According to the minister, these will help to advance the efforts of the MTF and CARICOM as the various countries work together to achieve ‘Vision 25 by 2025’.