The Caribbean region’s future in agro-production is ripe for investment, according to presenters at the recent CARICOM/CUBA/FLORIDA Trade and Investment Conference in Miramar.
“Research indicates return on investment in these areas would be lucrative, reduce the massive food import bill, and generate employment in the region,” says to South-Florida businessman and conference chair Wesley Kirton.
Trade leaders from across the region attended the forum to share current opportunities for agro-investment, including Belize Minister of Trade and Investment, Rafael Contreras, and Ambassador Bayney Karran of Guyana. The conference identified lucrative areas in the production of coconut-based products such as coconut water and virgin coconut oil, hot pepper, livestock, aquaculture and root crops.
Discussion with investors at the meeting, including South Florida’s Jamaican-American Aston Lue of Ocho Rios Foods, were positive, according to Kirton. He said investors now realize the region has land, labor and new alternative energy resources, including wind and solar energy, to facilitate agro-production, not only for the region’s consumption, but export to the USA.
“And there’s the potential for foreign trade zones in South Florida to play a pivotal role in agro-production in the Caribbean,” said Kirton. “Products can be shipped to these zones to be packaged, and redistributed to U.S. markets, with significant savings. South Florida traders in farm equipment, machinery and fertilizers, would also benefit significantly through exports to the Caribbean.”
Preferential access to international markets for agro-products from the Caribbean through trade agreements would also be available said Dr. Mark Kirton, Director at the Institute of International Relations at the UWI.
Mayor of the City of Miramar Wayne Messam and Florida Foreign Trade Zone Operator Robert Jacob also appraised investors on the benefits of the region’s foreign trade zones, and the potential to make exports from the Caribbean more competitive in international markets.
“The Caribbean cannot continue to import $4.5 billion in food from the U.S.,” says Kirton. “The region must make a serious thrust in the production of its own food, and through last week’s conference we have begun to target US investors, including from the Caribbean Diaspora, for this purpose.”
