UN: High int’l food prices likely to continue

Sep 29, 2010 News

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– CARICOM countries urged to eat local

By Leonard Gildarie

As the Caribbean region considers a major proposal to ensure there is enough food being produced for its member states, authorities have urged for a drastic reduction of its burgeoning imports. Not only do CARICOM member states need to consume what it produces, but it is imperative that a US$3.5B import food bill be reduced drastically.
The call was made yesterday as CARICOM, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Italy and the European Union, met in Guyana to consider a draft policy for Food and Nutrition Security in the Caribbean.
Addressing the gathering at the Princess Hotel, Providence, East Bank Demerara, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, stressed that the workshop comes at a critical juncture.
“With last week’s MDG Summit at the United Nations in New York evaluating the progress made midway to reach the targets set in 2005, we find ourselves in a world where close to one billion men, women and children remain undernourished. This is unacceptable.”
Noting that Guyana is making strides to reduce poverty, the official was convinced that there could be no room for complacency.
“For without food security we deprive our citizens the fundamental right to live fulfilling lives for we significantly compromise their ability to reach their full potential as human beings.”
According to Persaud, Caribbean nations have lapsed in balancing agricultural trade.
Twenty years ago, the region accounted for more than two percent of the world’s agricultural trade.
US$3B import bill
“Our share has declined to less than 0.3 percent today. Our net agricultural trade was in surplus then – standing at around US$3B. Today we are in deficit, paying over US$3.5B annually to import our food. What is worth noting is that these shifting trade patterns have not only impacted our region economically. They have also exacerbated economic inequalities and fed poverty, thus contributing towards the region’s security challenges.”
He noted that any plans to address the challenge of food and nutrition security in the Caribbean must work to remove the barriers put up by international trade and take into account the socio-economic impacts.
The Minister warned of the global food crisis just a couple of years ago which provided numerous challenges.
With the recent increase in wheat and corn prices, images from the 2008 food price crisis, which saw the prices of key agricultural commodities skyrocket in the span of a few months, have become vivid again.
“The global economic downturn, which has affected our region mostly through its impact on remittances and tourism with knock-on effects on the agriculture sector, reminded us how exposed our region is to the global environment. Natural calamities, brought on by climate change, have further compounded our region’s ability to attain food security, as well as the continued difficulties brought on by pests and diseases.”
Shocks
The Minister, questioning the region’s efforts to capitalize on global opportunities while being battered again and again by various challenges, said that the agriculture sectors should remain robust to the shocks.
“Despite ample global stocks, nominal wheat prices have shot up by 56% over the last two months, with knock-on effects on substitute commodities such as sorghum and maize, which rose by 7-8%. How have we in the region made sure that we will not be adversely impacted by these rises, even if they are short-lived? If we cannot produce these commodities efficiently, how have we made sure that we are able to export other agricultural commodities that will give us the required foreign exchange earnings that we can use to pay for the increased prices?”
The official told the gathering that heavy investments have been made to the agriculture sector. “And we are moving to transform the sector through diversification as provided for in our Grow More Food campaign. For example, in addition to our constant efforts at making the sugar and rice industries more productive and competitive, we are in the process of rolling out over US$50M worth of dedicated projects that aim to support the so-called ‘non-traditional sectors’.” And the investments are bearing fruit, as has been independently established by the FAO and other organizations.
However, the Minister lamented the fact that with the exception of Guyana and a handful of countries in CARICOM, there is yet to be decisive action and coordination at the political level.
He warned that the workshop should not be just another “talk shop” producing endless amounts of papers that end up on dusty shelves.
In addition to the high food importation bill to the Caribbean, Minister Persaud expressed concern over the health issues associated with people’s unhealthy and costly tastes, “which not only means that we have to spend our exchange earnings to pay for the import of highly processed and unhealthy products, but we also have to deal with the resulting health-related problems, which affect our region’s productivity and human capital.”
Any plan to deal with food and nutrition security for the region has to incorporate nutritional aspects and place emphasis on the people consuming what is produced.
Another key area that needs attention is the overall agricultural risk management strategies that would be critical in protecting CARICOM states from adverse weather, pests and diseases which can in one instant wipe out entire crops.
“The strategy therefore must be a strategy that will help deliver food security not just in 3 or 5 years’ time, but also set the foundation for long-term sustainable agricultural development models. For we cannot afford to invest in a strategy that will be outdated in a few years,” he explained.
CARICOM’s take
CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque, disclosed that regional leaders had recognized the challenges and that food and nutrition security are multi-dimensional and require an urgent and coherent response in a wide range of sectors.
“This situation had brought home to our member states the need to refocus their policies, programs and investments at national and regional levels to ensure stable supplies of healthy food for their citizens, with the highest feasible proportion of local content and value added.”
According to LaRocque, in the past, the different dimensions of food and nutrition security have been addressed separately, resulting in a mix of policies that have not had the desired results.
“Breaking with tradition, this draft policy envisages simultaneous, holistic and concerted action on a wider front. The draft regional policy addresses food access, food safety, stability of supply, nutrition security, and health and wellbeing, viewed from the perspective of both the consumer and the producer, and not solely from the producer as we have tended to do it in the past.  This is a significant departure from equating food security and food availability.”
He too urged for a reduction of the total food import bill, more investments in agriculture, and education for citizens on eating right.
He also called for more young people to be involved in agriculture and the need to take effective action to mitigate against the effects of climate change – a major threat to food security – and to adapt its consequences.
In her remarks, FAO’s Caribbean Representative, Florita Kentish, yesterday disclosed that projections suggest that food prices are likely to remain high for the next few years and not likely to come down to the pre-2008 level.
Kentish acknowledged that food security in the region has been affected by declines in productivity of land, earnings from traditional crops, loss of markets and high dependence on imported food.
She urged for the region to consider the fact that donor agencies have geared their funding to target more agricultural programs, and any program for food security in the region will be key to tapping into these resources.
The plan it is expected, after ratification by the officials today, will be considered for implementation in a few months’ time.

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