Catastrophic global events often spark worldwide inflation, but their impact on small economies like Saint Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean can be particularly severe, leaving these nations struggling to recover.
Among inflation’s harshest impacts is the rising cost of food. As Saint Lucia relies heavily on food imports, global events directly affect local prices, making the fight against mounting food costs an uphill battle.
COVID-19 resulted in dramatic setbacks in the Caribbean. Reports indicate that Latin America and the Caribbean suffered the world’s hardest blows in terms of per capita deaths and economic fallout. The pandemic caused drastic and sudden disruptions to trade, triggered by a dip in global demand, harsh cross-border restrictions, logistical challenges and port closures. This led to significant price hikes for imported food.
Studies also show that food import costs increased in 2020 and 2021. These included fats and oils (31.3 per cent), dairy and eggs (17.9 per cent), fruits and vegetables (10.7 per cent), staples and cereals (15.4 per cent), meat and seafood (16.5 per cent), sugar and honey (15.2 per cent), spices and tea (8.2 per cent), and beverages (0.2 per cent).
Although health concerns related to the pandemic have since subsided, the high cost of food remains a pressing issue, particularly for lower-income earners who are most affected.
How then can increasing food costs be effectively addressed?
A report published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research on the welfare implications of rising imported food costs in the Caribbean offers potential solutions. Authored by David Forgenie, Sharon D. Hutchinson, and Andrew Muhammad, the report suggests social support, targeted policies and increasing domestic food production.
The report highlights that prices for imported cereals, staples, fruits, vegetables, and fats and oils are particularly sensitive to global disruptions. It advises Caribbean governments to provide social support to ensure continued access to these food groups during price shocks.
“Approximately one-third of the value of any direct monetary support should be targeted to cereals and staples,” states the welfare implications report, as cereals and staples were found to be most vulnerable to price shocks. “Therefore, regional governments should target increases in the domestic production of cereals and staples (primarily) and fruits and vegetables (secondly) or provide better storage and value-added processing of these food products, respectively, to buffer steep rises in import prices for this group.”
Because low-income households in the Caribbean are disproportionately affected by price increases, the report calls for strengthening social safety nets such as food assistance programmes and cash transfer payments to vulnerable households.
The Saint Lucia government has declared its intent to boost the local economy. Measures to increase income and reduce the costs of certain goods have also been implemented. Subsidies on flour, rice, and cooking gas have been applied and the six per cent service charge on controlled goods has been removed. A $1 131 minimum wage has also been implemented.
“Since 2021, we sought to cushion the impact of price increases on the people of Saint Lucia. We have increased the taxable allowance to 30 000 per year, which means that no Saint Lucian worker getting $2 500 or less per month pays any income tax,” Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre told reporters at a press conference in December.
“We have, for two years, made one-off payments to government pensioners. We have increased the NIC pensions from a minimum of $300 to $500 monthly. The NIC has also increased its payment to their pensioners. No government pensioner now earns less than $750 monthly,” he added.
The prime minister also announced a wage increase and a $500 bonus for public sector workers, which elicited mixed reactions from the public and some civil worker representative groups.
CARICOM has also set an ambitious goal of reducing the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent in 2025.
However, Agriculture Minister Alfred Prospere acknowledged in October 2024 that Saint Lucia and the wider region are unlikely to meet this target.
“All the countries are playing their part. The part that we play is to increase our production but our production cannot only be increased in watermelons, cucumbers and sweet peppers. We have to increase it in all of the basic commodities and we need to have a year-round production level that may even allow us to export the excess. We are doing that but there are challenges, challenges we have no control of like climate change,” Prospere told reporters at a press briefing.
The minister cited the effects of Hurricane Beryl and a lack of insurance for farmers as hurdles: “We have to take major decisions in terms of how we address that problem. We discussed a number of areas like agricultural insurance because what you find after a hurricane or storm has impacted the sector is that it can be very demotivating to our farmers.”
Without agricultural insurance, he said, farmers face “serious problems” when they suffer major losses.
Despite the challenges, Prospere shared a glimmer of hope, noting that CARICOM Ministers of Agriculture had devised a plan to tackle food security during the Caribbean Week of Agriculture in St Vincent last year.
While these initiatives will require time to bear fruit, Saint Lucians continue to feel the strain of rising food and living costs.
Let me share with you that rising prices in food, rent, mortgage, gas, propane, tuition, car notes, insurance for medical, dental and vision, insurance for vehicles, clothing etc. etc. etc. etc. is a world-wide issue.
Not sure why folk in St. Lucia believe that “things are hard” only in St. Lucia – it’s everywhere in the world. Carnival and jazz are around the corner – I guarantee you things won’t be hard for none of these events you all will find the funds to partake – give me a break for real. All the TOWN CRIERS will be in FULL attendance bien abeeyea at all events paying $$$$.
BTW – stop begging family and friends who reside abroad and work in snow storms, rain and shine for $$$$ to fund your lifestyle. Find a job and support yourself and your family.
Well another topic on our ballooning food security and dependency; and that dependency is draining our pockets while killing us at the same time. We are so programmed on the dependency on foreign goods the principles of growing what we need and eating what we grow is even more far fetched. Not for me, Covid 19 open my eyes to the need of been more self sufficient as it pertains to my own food security, now I grow 80 % of what I need at the same time enjoying the cost savings along with the health benefits. Some of our basic food staples for which we crave should be a part of every St Lucian yard in abundance but we have become a lazy bunch agriculturally. The present economic situation will only get worse if our mindsets are not changed against the crave for American Poison. A stringent public awareness campaign of growing back yard gardens should be launched with a profound interest to educate St Lucians of the need to be more proactive of their food security and been health conscious of their food choices.