Caribbean Farmers – Sharon N. Simon
Caribbean Farmers Eye 5Bn
[email protected]
Caribbean farmers could earn $1.5 billion a year as CARICOM moves to slash the region’s $6 billion food import bill by a quarter.
Wayne Elliott, head of technical programmes at the Caribbean Export Development Agency, said the region was leaving those earnings on the table by relying so heavily on imported food. He was speaking on the radio programme Observer AM ahead of the Caribbean Investment Forum, which returns to Barbados in October.
Food imports account for up to 90 per cent of all calories consumed across CARIFORUM member states, sending roughly $6 billion out of the region every year, according to figures cited on the programme. Mr Elliott said the bill represented one of the region’s largest untapped domestic markets, since it reflected production, investment, employment and value creation forfeited to overseas suppliers.
CARICOM has set a target of cutting the regional food import bill by 25 per cent, which Mr Elliott said opened up a $1.5 billion window for local agribusinesses. To capture that share, he said, local production had to be price competitive with imports.
Caribbean exports of value-added agricultural products, though still comparatively low, have been rising, driven partly by demand among diaspora communities abroad, he said. The main obstacle to growth, he added, remained consistency of supply.
To address that, agribusinesses have begun building structured teams of agronomists, business managers and marketing specialists, rather than expecting individual farmers to manage every stage of production. Mr Elliott said this approach allowed for aggregation of output, more predictable returns and a credible pipeline of investment-ready projects, which was what international investors were looking for.
Fragmented island markets have historically been too small to attract significant funding from global development finance institutions, he acknowledged. A unified regional approach was needed instead, aggregating projects across countries such as Guyana and Belize, both of which have offered land for large-scale agricultural production.
The Caribbean Investment Forum, now in its fifth year, will be held at the Hilton Barbados Resort from 5 to 7 October, hosted by the Caribbean Export Development Agency. The event will focus on four themes: sustainable agriculture, trade and logistics, digital transformation and the green transition.
Mr Elliott encouraged project developers, farmers, agribusiness owners, technology providers and government agencies to attend, saying its business-to-business meetings gave direct access to institutional investors and private equity firms without the usual hierarchy. After the forum, the Caribbean Export Development Agency offers aftercare support to help move early discussions towards signed investment deals, he said.
He pointed to disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic, when interrupted global supply chains exposed the region’s reliance on imports, as a reminder of why food sovereignty mattered. Building up regional production would not be easy or quick, he admitted, but he believed it was worth the effort.
