Against the backdrop of numerous un-kept promises by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government to ‘put heads together’ to come up with strategies to reduce extra-regional food imports and to move closer to a condition of regional food security, the region as a whole has witnessed an inexorable climb in its food import bill, a circumstance that represents a baffling dichotomy between rhetoric and action.
With the regional food import bill now believed to be standing somewhere in the region of US$5 billion, there has been yet another intervention by Guyana, this time in the person of the country’s President, Irfaan Ali, who last week alluded to the importance of what the state-run Department of Public Information (DPI) described as “across-the-board commitments by CARICOM Member States” to achieve the target of reducing food importation by 25 per cent by the year 2025.
