The Ministries of Trade and Agriculture are currently exploring options to reduce this country’s food importation bill that will see the engagement of manufacturers and farmers to supply the demands locally.
At a Joint Select Committee on Friday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Michelle Anne Thomas, outlined some of the steps it has in place to reduce the quantity of food that is imported.
“We want to provide, and continue to provide, access to finance and credit through the Agricultural Development Bank. We are looking at providing markets and marketing infrastructure such as the Piarco Packing House Facility and expanding our packing house storage facilities. We are looking at modernising farming through technology, the use of digital tools and smart greenhouses.”
Likewise, the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism has also embarked on initiatives geared towards saving foreign exchange.
Director of Trade Facilitation, Neville Alexander, stated: “Our role in the Ministry has been to seek to find solutions where we could get our local manufacturers to go up into the production of its own hatchlings so that we can reduce importation in that space and remove the need for forex in that instance. In addition to that, we are also looking at supporting the industry in terms of manufacturing of other products that we import in the poultry area, for instance, powdered egg products.”
Mr. Alexander added that it is currently examining the tariff structure to support the competitiveness so that local manufacturers can compete with foreign products.
Meanwhile, the Director of Strategy, Business Facilitation and Programme Management at the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism, Candice Lackhansingh, said the Ministry is ensuring that policies are in place to deal with pricing.
“Yes, sometime we have imported products, and we look at the pricing that are passed on, but you also have the encouragement of local production, and it’s something that we are pursuing within the Ministry to advocate for more local production of goods so that we can see that sort of pricing reflected in the supermarkets.”
According to the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Abigail Bynoe, that Ministry is looking at all imported items and engaging with manufacturers to provide them locally.