The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) announced on Friday that the European Union (EU) allocated 19 million euros (about 20.8 million dollars) to the Caribbean for food production and resilience, at the launch of the call for proposals of the Regional Program of Food Safety EU-BDC.
“The food safety and nutritional are vital pillars for the agricultural sector and are key to maintaining the health and well-being of our communities, especially among the most vulnerable,” said BDC Project Director L.O’Reilly Lewis in a statement.
This new program food safety will grant between 400,000 and 570,000 euros for national projects and up to 670,000 euros for the Caribbean agricultural SMEsfacilitating access to financing, encouraging innovation and promoting innovation.
The BDC indicated that it actively works with regional and international organizations to contribute to the ’25 by 2025′ initiative of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) with the objective of reducing food imports in the region, improving intraregional trade and creating wealth and economic opportunities.
Caricom member countries
The members from Caricom are:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados
- Bahamas
- Belize
- Dominica
- Grenade
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- Montserrat
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Surinam
- Trinidad and Tobago.
The pandemic of covid-19 and climatic phenomena have affected the agricultural productivity of Caricom member countries, such as Hurricane Beryl, which this year caused massive losses in Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the banana industries and banana suffered losses of up to 98%, while Jamaica’s agricultural sector suffered $15.9 million in damage, affecting more than 45,000 farmers.
In addition, Grenada saw 98% of its infrastructure destroyed on the islands of Carriacou and Little Martinique.
These events have slowed down the goal of reducing food imports by 25% by 2025.
For his part, Felipe de La Mota, envoy of the European Union In Barbados, the project is part of a larger funding package to increase regional efforts by Caricom and the Organization of Caribbean States (OECS) to remove obstacles related to the food safety.
Likewise, the director of the Agricultural Health ProgramFood Safety and Quality of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), José Urdaz, emphasized the impact of global volatility on the food safety and nutritional.
“IICA will work with program partners to improve the capabilities of food processing in order to increase the regional distribution of agricultural and fishing products,” stated Urdaz.
