(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) H.E Irwin Larocque, Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Integration at the CARICOM Secretariat told the first formal meeting of Plant Health officials from across the Caribbean, that the Region needs to produce more than it consumes, in order to tackle the issue of rising food prices.
In his address to in the opening session of the three day meeting, 23-25 April 2008,. at the CARICOM Secretariat in Guyana, Ambassador Larocque said “The solutions to resolving this challenge to our food security are not totally within our control, but we can say with certainty that it must include with expanded food production in each of our countries. We must produce an increasing share of the food we consume and we must ensure that our people have access to the food we produce,”
He noted that the Region is faced with the growing challenge of rising food prices which is nearing crisis proportions. He assured that the rising cost of living and, moreso, food security is occupying the attention of Caribbean Leaders.
Over the three days the Caribbean Plant Health officials will be addressing policy and technical issues related to plant health with a view to charting a road map for action, given the current and emerging situations at the international, Regional and national levels.
The Assistant Secretary-General said further that in light of the issue of rising food prices the meeting takes on added significance. The officials are having their first formal meeting and it takes place in Guyana 23-25 April 2008.
He informed that “it is this forum which must assist in finding the solutions to ensuring that the threats to a reduction of our food production and supply and, in particular, a reduction in the yield of plant and plant products, are kept to a minimum or at best prevented from entering our borders and moving freely intra-Regionally. At the same time, whatever necessary plant health measures are put in place should also serve to facilitate trade in food products within the Region”.
In this regard he highlighted that their challenges are to assess the international, regional and national plant health environment; strategise on how to minimise the threats posed by thousands of plant pests and diseases which impact on food security; make recommendations, among others, for adoption of Regional and national policies in coordinating common approaches to manage the existing and emerging threats; and consider approaches to facilitating trade while maintaining the integrity of plant health.
He thanked the International Development partners for their support, noting that they have long supported the Caribbean on various initiatives for the agriculture sector.
For this meeting of Plant Health officials, the Caribbean is partnering with United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS, the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) the French agency for animal and plant health CIRAD and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.
