CARICOM Ministerial Taskforce reveals 57 per cent achievement in Vision 25 by 2025

At this year’s first CARICOM Ministerial Taskforce (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security meeting, it was revealed that the Caribbean Community was collectively able to achieve a milestone of 57 per cent towards the reduction of the regional food import bill, 25 per cent by 2025. It was further come to light that products such as cocoa, dairy, meat, root crops, fruits, and poultry rose to 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 met the targeted production volume set for the year 2025. Agriculture and agroprocessing improvements in Guyana, Belize, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Dominica, and Jamaica led to the increase in value-added commodities, especially in ginger, turmeric, corn, soya bean, root crops, fruits, cocoa, poultry, meat, fish, table eggs, and dairy. Marking the success of the agriculture industry, it was further announced at the 104th. Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) Trade Policies, that 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. According to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, “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. ”

Source(Department of Public Information )

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6 Feb 2023 17:15 | by anaraine