While it is expected that planning for the February 24-26 Barbados Agro Fest is, by now, well underway, the region is yet to be afforded the full details of what is expected to be an event that is expected to help light the way in the matter of the direction in which the Caribbean is headed in pursuit of strengthening its food security bona fides. Accordingly, it would be more than worthwhile to secure a region-wide update on the pace and progress of planning for an event which, contextually, has a significance that goes beyond the interests of the host country.
Here, what comes to mind immediately, is the opportunity afforded by this year’s Agro Fest to secure a progress report on the planned creation of a regional Food Security Terminal, an envisaged storehouse for emergency food supplies, an initiative that has been partially assigned to Barbados by the region as a whole. Last year’s decision on a regional food security backup arose out of an agreed recognition that while the region remains far from being a basket case insofar as availability of food is concerned, wider global food security challenges fully justify the creation of a mechanism to help shield the Caribbean from such an eventuality. Assessments of the food security bona fides of the Caribbean undertaken recently have revealed that some of the smaller, more vulnerable islands of the region experience levels of food insecurity, their food security credentials having been blighted mostly by fragile agriculture infrastructure, including climate conditions that are inhospitable to sustainable food cultivation.
Guyana, which has already been targeted as the source from which much of the emergency regional food supplies will come, should the need arise, will, presumably, have an obligation to provide an update on the bilateral Black Belly sheep initiative between itself and Barbados, the outcome of which is also expected to help point the way in the matter of overall regional food security. February will also not be too early for further updates on just how the regional Food Terminal can be expected to function, in practice. Not least of the considerations that are likely to arise here will have to do with the logistical mechanisms that will attend the movement of food around the region in times of emergency. Away from the Food Terminal issue, this year’s Agro Fest is also likely to witness jockeying among countries of the region to use the event to ‘beef up’ market acceptance for their respective agro-processed products outside of their own home territories, specifically, in other regional markets.
The event, which is expected to attract participation from Agro Processors from Guyana and other parts of the region, will serve to provide a barometer to measure consumer assessment of the extent to which regional agro produce benefits from both enhanced product quality and improved standards of product presentation, not least, packaging and labeling. While the local Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) is once again expected to be tagged with overarching responsibility for promoting local agro-produce at the Agro Fest event, there has been little, if any, evaluation of how the state agency has fared previously in this assignment. Critically, what is not known is the extent to which the work of the GMC has contributed, up to this time, to the growth of external market acceptance. Among some local Agro Processors this task is believed to be beyond the capacity of the state-run agency that functions as a ‘department’ of the Ministry of Agriculture. Accordingly, local Agro Processors seeking to participate in this year’s Agro Fest have expressed a preference for traveling with their products’ and pursuing their own marketing assignments at regional at the Agro Fest event.
Meanwhile, some Agro Processors who have targeted the Barbados Agro Fest as a marketing ‘pit stop’ for 2023, have begun to make inquiries as to whether government will be providing financial support for locals wishing to participate in the event. Specific inquiries have been made as to whether official consideration is being given to a subsidy of the cost of airline tickets and helping to meet the cost of booth space for product display in Barbados. The Barbados Agro Fest is staged, not just to promote the agro processing and wider agricultural sectors of the region, but also to provide opportunities for food producers to introduce new products to the domestic and regional markets. While more than forty small businesses in the local agro-processing and other sectors attended Agro Fest 2022, it is unclear how many will attend the event this year. Stabroek Business understands that a key factor that will influence the ‘numbers’ that will participate in the event will be whether the Government of Guyana will agree to the subsidy request.
