CARICOM’s plan to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025 is Barbados’ best bet to lower food prices over the long term, says Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
And she warned there would be no quick fix to the high food prices as challenges to the supply chain and sourcing major inputs persist. She was speaking to the media yesterday at the Eighth CARICOM-Cuba Summit being held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
“The deeper issue in terms of being able to reduce the price of corn and the price of other inputs for poultry production and pork production, will require us taking a longer approach.
“Guyana, for example, set itself the goal that by 2025 it will have enough corn and soya production to deal with all of its domestic production for livestock rearing, but also would be able to contribute to the region’s needs. It takes long to be able to bring that scale of production on and it’s not going to happen overnight,” Mottley said.
Recently, consumer rights group, Barbados Consumers Empowerment Network, has been calling on Government to address the “exponential rise in the cost of living” and high food prices. (Nation News)
