Barbados: Food import bill simply too high – Fletcher-Paul

One regional agriculture specialist is advising Government to make it mandatory for tourism operators here to use a certain amount of local agriculture produce in their operations.

This suggestion has come from sub-regional Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Dr Lystra Fletcher-Paul, who said Barbados’ food import bill was simply too high.

Addressing a lunchtime lecture put on by the Rural Development Commission (RDC) at the Queens Park steel shed on Friday on the topic Grow What You Eat/Invest in Food Security, Fletcher-Paul said it was the responsibility of households, government and the private sector, to ensure the country’s food supply is secure and of high quality, while driving down the near half a billion dollar food import bill.

“In our hotels local foods should be served because tourists come to our shores for the local experience,” said Fletcher-Paul.

“There should be incentives to the private sector investors to purchase and serve food that is grown locally. In the same way that government gives tax shelters to hotel chains, they should also include a clause which states that a certain percentage of the food that is served should be grown locally. This could be implemented through establishing contracts through local farmers’ groups.

“To me, if a hotel is coming into your country and looking to invest in the country, I see nothing wrong with the government saying ‘as part of the whole package, as good cooperate citizens, could you then include a section that says that a certain percentage of the food you serve in your hotel should come from local farmers, and establish contracts with those local farmers,’” she explained.

She said this means, however, that an enabling environment would have to be put in place to allow for smooth flow of supplies to meet demand, and systems to allow for timely payment.

Adding that careful planning of the production would also be necessary, the agriculture official said farmers would have to produce consistently high quality and quantity always.

“So, it also means that the farmers’ associations have to be well organized,” she said, adding that there would have to be an agreement in relation to which farmers would produce what quantity of each product for the tourism sector.

“We seem to assume that when tourists come to our shore they want to eat the same things they are eating in their own homes. A lot of them want the local experience. So, provide them with the local experience by growing what we eat and let them eat what we grow,” Fletcher-Paul said.

She also singled out government as one of the biggest culprits when it came to using imported items as opposed to locally produced ones at its various functions, adding that she hopes government was serving locally produced items in “prison, hospitals and schools”.

Source and More Information: https://barbadostoday.bb/2018/04/21/food-import-bill-simply-too-high-fletcher-paul/

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