Guyana among countries to benefit from CDB-funded study on transporting agri-products

– study aims at boosting “25 by 2025” vision

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will be funding a maritime cargo service study that is aimed at coming up with strategies to boost agricultural trade in the South-East Caribbean, and will benefit a number of countries in the region, including Guyana. This was announced by the bank on Wednesday.
According to the CDB in a statement, they will be funding a consultancy that would explore the establishment of a maritime cargo service between Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago – primarily for the movement of agricultural products.
“The initiative is part of the CDB’s pledge to improve food security within the Caribbean, and to promote regional cooperation. It also demonstrates the Bank’s support for the imperative announced last year by CARICOM Heads of Government to achieve a 25% reduction in the Region’s food import bill by 2025,” CDB explained.

According to the bank, the Caricom heads had identified a lack of adequate regional transportation as a major obstacle to the movement of agricultural products within the Region, and a major contributor to food insecurity.
According to CDB Director of Projects, Daniel Best, the establishment of such a system can go a long way towards removing obstacles to food security.
“Policymakers in Caricom have established that intra-regional agricultural trade can balance food deficits and surpluses, contribute to price stability, and increase the diversity of food supply; all of which can achieve greater food and nutrition security for the Caribbean,” Best explained.
“CDB is aware that improving intra-regional trade in agriculture will require interventions across the ecosystem; however, the provision of efficient and sustainable transportation to move agricultural goods will go a far way in achieving 25 by 25,” he added.
It was explained that the project would explore options for addressing a range of factors affecting the transportation of agricultural products by sea, including management and operational systems; onshore facilities; food safety provisions; and customs and plant quarantine operations.
“The main objective of the initiative is to identify opportunities for urgent improvement in maritime transportation capacity, recommend transportation modalities, and provide solutions which utilize existing shipping assets.
“A technical working group will be established to provide oversight of the study. The body will include representatives from Governments of the participating countries, the Caricom Secretariat, the Caricom Private Sector Organization, and the CDB,” the bank further explained.
The Government’s focus on agriculture is down to the vision of making Guyana the bread basket of the Caribbean and reducing the regional food import bill. Last year, President Dr. Irfaan Ali had declared that his Government would be pursuing an aggressive campaign to dismantle regional barriers to agricultural trade; and that, in the next four years, with the assistance of more diversified crops, Guyana would aim to reduce Caricom’s food import bill by 25 per cent.
It was reported in February that member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have collectively achieved a significant 57 per cent of the target set to realize “Vision 25 by 2025”. This announcement was made during the first Caricom Ministerial Task Force (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security meeting for 2023.
A statement from Guyana’s Ministry of Agriculture had stated that countries submitted reports detailing their production data for 2022 for targeted commodities, as Caricom moves towards lowering the regional import bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025.
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 targeted production volumes set for 2025.
Moreover, countries such as Guyana, Belize, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Dominica, and Jamaica have made significant advances in the production of commodities such as ginger, turmeric, corn, soya bean, root crops, fruits, cocoa, poultry, meat, fish, table eggs, and dairy.
The report also indicated that, for 2022, Guyana produced some 20,195 metric tonnes of ginger and turmeric; 144,289 metric tonnes of root crops; 21,870 metric tonnes of fish, and 40,749 metric tonnes of coconuts.