Agricultural Analyst Says T&T Can Cut $7.3 Billion Food Import Bill By Half In Six To Eight Years
Agricultural Analyst Dr Donny Rogers believes Trinidad and Tobago can slash the more than $7 billion food import bill while diversifying the economy and creating jobs.
The Minister of Agriculture, Ravi Ratiram, has indicated that Trinidad and Tobago’s high food import bill puts a strain on the country’s foreign exchange reserves, drives up local grocery costs and exposes the domestic market to global supply chain disruptions.
According to Dr Rogers, the food bill can be significantly reduced.
« We do have the space in Trinidad to reduce at least half of our food import bill. Our food import bill currently stands at about 7 point 3 billion TT. In a six to eight-year period we could take that figure down to half. But it will take an aggressive approach. It will take a strategic plan. And again, it should be built on data. »
Dr Rogers noted that not everything can be produced in this country, so some of the agricultural products will need to be imported.
« There are certain things that we just don’t have the land space to do, such as grains and stuff like that. Those things, you need 20 thousand acres and stuff like that, you know, in order to be profitable. But there are things that we can be producing when we look at a breakdown of the food import bill that can reduce our forex, increase jobs, increase businesses in the SME sector and better improve livelihoods. »
The agricultural analyst indicated that the recent poultry scarcity has led to some benefits in that it has highlighted issues that need to be addressed.
« We have seen from the initial egg issue that expressions of interest were fielded from the business sector. And I think now is the time where the business sector and the SME sector should step up and invest in our food production so that they diversify their income and in assisting us nationally to get our food import bill down. »
Dr Rogers reiterated his call for a national agricultural census, which he says will take four to six months.
