Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, Barrymore Felicien, has disclosed that agro-processed items and meats comprise the foods Saint Lucia most imports.
An Agriculture Ministry release quoted Felicien as disclosing it to key stakeholders.
The release said the stakeholders, including pork and ginger producers, met to examine their respective value chains and tackle the issues plaguing their sector.
“An analysis of our food import bill shows that the import of meats is only second to agri-processed foods. Among agri-processed foods, juices are the highest we see, with the import of pork and chicken being dominant,” the Permanent Secretary explained.
Felicien said in keeping with Saint Lucia’s CARICOM 25 by 25 commitment to reducing food import bills by 2025, Saint Lucia has deliberately focused on the pork value chain to reduce the imports and enhance food security.
He noted that the livestock subsector is integral to the agriculture sector as a food security and rural development pillar.
The stakeholder consultation at which Felicien spoke highlighted livestock subsector challenges.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have organised an extensive assessment of the current state of the Pork and Ginger subsectors.
In this regard, Felicien expressed gratitude to the FAO for its continuous assistance as the agriculture ministry works towards implementing the livestock development master plan and providing farmers with the necessary assistance to create a successful livestock sector.
All of these things we can produce locally.
All we good for is consultations to identify problems that we already know exist What are the concrete actions to addresss. Here are some to consider:
1. Compliment youth economy with small loans/ grants facility for persons wishing to move into livestock- specifically poultry, pork, beef.
2. Revamp marketing board so farmers can sell their produce in bulk to the entity which in turn can sell to Massy, Hotels etc. This would produce scale so even the farmer producing only 10 pounds of lettuce can have a readily available market for his produce. Hotels will no longer be able to say they do not get enough to supply their demand locally.
3. Incentivize farming- Registered Livestock rearers should be able to get concessions on feed and other input material for their investments.
why is this news? any dunce will detect such info.
I do not eat pork, chicken, and most processed juices. So, this doesn’t concern me.
No government is committed to changing this. It takes effort. They rather take.loans and put more taxes to pay the loans back rather than thinking of ways to make the country move forward.
Then Crow, your comment is irrelevant shouldve kept it to yourself.
@Vibez … WORD!!!
@Anonymous … MORE WORD!! All Saint Lucians know this already!!
AGRO-PROCESSING in SLU = $$$!!!
Don’t eat anything from China; just don’t order it.
It good..they reguse to pay farmers for their produce…when ppl buy they want things next to nothing but ordering all crap for plenty money..it good…