Hugh Martin, Contributor
THE VERY important meeting of Forum of Ministers of Agriculture held last week Thursday and Friday at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston went almost unnoticed based on the amount of press coverage it received.
It wasn't that the media were absent for they were there in numbers at the opening session. But apart from a very brief television news report the following evening, and a photograph of two of the participants in conversation in one newspaper a day later, it was almost as if it was a meeting of the cho-cho growers association of Bangor Ridge.
Last week's meeting deserved more attention if for no other reason than that it was mandated by the CARICOM Heads of Government at their 25th regular meeting in July 2004, to carry out a specific task. That task was to discuss the document: "Strengthening Regional Agriculture for Sustainable Growth and Development; A proposed Framework for Reposi-tioning the Agricultural Sector".
PROPOSAL AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Once agreement was arrived at a summary of the proposal and recommendations should be presented to President Bharrat Jagdeo, the lead head of Agricul-ture for the consideration of the CARICOM Heads at their next meeting. Perhaps nothing new was said at the opening session by any of the persons bringing greetings, inclusive of Chairman Roger Clarke, Jamaica's Agriculture Minister; Dr. Chelston Brathwaite, Director-General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); Ms Desiree Field Golding, Adviser, Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) CARICOM Secretariat, and Mr. Michael Griffin, Senior Economist, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). But surely the feature address by the Hon. K.D. Knight, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Jamaica, must have contained something that would interest some of us.
THE REAL STORY
And then there was Dr. Keith Evans, representative, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), who gave an address after signing the CABA/MIF project document. The real story lies not in what was said in the opening session of the meeting, but in the reason for the meeting which was not open to the press.
Minister Knight alluded to it in his presentation when he spoke of the external trade environment and pointed out that the agricultural sector within CARICOM continues to be affected by dynamic factors in the international trading system.
This point is well borne out by the case of the banana industries of Jamaica and the Wind-ward Islands which were devastated by the WTO ruling against their traditional marketing arrangements with the European Union a few years ago. And now the sugar industries of the region are engaged in a desperate fight for survival because of similar external challenges.
CHANGING GLOBAL MARKETPLACE
The changing global marketplace has no sympathy for inefficient producers and unless the region can quickly develop strategies to achieve a level of competitiveness in its various commodities, development and prosperity will continue to evade the people. Not only will the region not be able to sell its produce on the international market, their local markets will be flooded with imports from the more efficient producers and governments will no longer be able to provide protection for such import surges, gluts and depressed prices for local produce.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CSME
Minister Knight also made reference to the imminent implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy by Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados this year. How many Jamaicans are aware of the implications of this event which will be signed by the respective Heads of Government in February.
Among other things, eligible CARICOM nationals will be free to establish farmers' markets as well as wholesale and retail agricultural operations in Jamaica without the need for a work permit and on the same terms and conditions as their Jamaican counterparts. Similar opportunities are available for eligible Jamaican nationals in participating CSME territories.
Minister Knight had some interesting information on the prospects for marketing agricultural products on the CARICOM market that deserves greater coverage than it recei-ved. As the Minister responsible for Foreign Trade however, he needs to provide more up-to-date statistics than the 2001 total food exports of US$272 million he used in his feature address. In fact, I have ascertained that the figure for 2003 is US$204 million.
Hugh Martin is a communication specialist and farm broadcaster.
