Key opportunities exist in agri sector for all CARIFORUM members

Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) member countries, inclusive of Guyana, are encouraged to explore key business opportunities and partnerships with the European Union (EU), as they work towards maintaining food security and reducing their food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
A CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) webinar on Thursday highlighted emerging trade and investment opportunities in agriculture, fisheries and food processing within the Region.
Signed in 2008, the EPA is not only a trade in goods agreement, but also includes commitments on trade in services, investment and trade-related issues. Overall, 14 CARIFORUM countries are implementing the CARIFORUM–EU EPA, including Guyana.

In her presentation, International Economic Development Specialist Tamira La Cruz expanded on the six key business opportunities within the sector.
“The first one is to sell consumer end-products for the food sector to the CARIFORUM countries. CARIFORUM now imports about € 15.5 billion in food products annually. The EU share of imports is 7.5 per cent, so there’s a lot of room for growth. Also, over the past five years, the EU sales to CARIFORUM has increased by 70 per cent,” La Cruz said. “There are opportunities in high value-added products from the EU… and also a high tourism dependency in the Region,” she added.
“The second opportunity is to invest to produce for local consumption. There are 30 million who are living in the CARIFORUM, which includes Haiti. Tourists spend 120 million nights in CARIFORUM,” La Cruz said.
La Cruz noted that these opportunities exist especially in countries with large land masses, like Guyana, in which Barbados is already investing. Through a recent partnership with the island, 50 acres of land in Guyana will be allocated to young people in Barbados to advance food production.
Meanwhile, work is progressing on a joint food terminal between these two countries that aims to store more than 40 containers of food, and be equipped with a processing and packaging plant. It will also provide cold storage facilities for seafood packaging and processing plants.
La Cruz went on to state that another key business opportunity includes investing in CARIFORUM to produce for the export of products, as the forum’s annual food export bill stands at € 5.3 million.
Under the three categories of agriculture, fisheries and agro-processing, exporting potential exists for products such as cocoa, coconuts, shrimp, tilapia, spirits and liqueurs, and herbs and spices.
There is also opportunity, La Cruz said, to sell and invest in traditional inputs like transportation and storage, as well as equipment and know-how, like artificial insemination of livestock, soil restoration, and technical testing and analysis.
“The fifth opportunity is to sell and invest in agritech, to increase efficiency and quality. There is lots of room for efficiency improvements,” La Cruz said. Inputs needed, she listed, include organic fertilisers and pesticides, greenhouses, irrigation, soil management and water catchment.
Meanwhile, know-how needs include scientific and technical consulting services, and information and communication technology-related services.
“The sixth opportunity is based on the EPA. Lower tariffs are afforded to the EU than to Most Favoured Nations (MFN); no local partner needed; and national treatment for EU nationals,” La Cruz said.