Estwick vows to tackle imports

Minister of Agriculture David Estwick as he spoke at the National Consultation yesterday. (Ricardo Leacock)

Mon, June 11, 2012 - 12:04 AM

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE Dr David Estwick has given an assurance that products that can be grown locally will not be imported.

Speaking last night at a National Consultation On Food And Agriculture at Princess Margaret Secondary School, he said that as long as he was the minister he would go to Cabinet to ensure that items that could be grown locally would not be imported.

“Where there is a production cycle and we have evidence that we can produce the majority, we will utilize the CARICOM model under the Revised Treaty Of Chaguaramas that makes it quite clear that within the context of Caricom, no produce can be imported into the Caricom region unless you have first applied to COTED [Council For Trade And Economic Development] and it is a demonstration that one country or the other has the capacity not to produce the amount you would want,” he added.

Before an audience that included chairman of the National Agricultural Commission, Dr Chelston Brathwaite, and Acting Chief Agricultural Officer Ralph Farnum, the minister said the national consultation on a white paper for agriculture was a positive step for the industry.

Read the full story in today's DAILY NATION.

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Posted by Clarke Beattie 11 months, 1 week ago: Very good idea now and would have been a very good idea ten or twenty years ago. Support Barbados farmers, they are your friends and neighbors!

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Posted by Bim Bum 11 months, 1 week ago: Mr. Estwick will be needing to address
THE NUMBER ONE PROBLEM in local Agriculture! our old friend and enemy..Praedial Larceny!

Until that matter is addressed MEANINGFULLY
with enforcement!...we are "spinning top in mud"!

Good Luck, Mister Estwick!

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Posted by Tony Waterman 11 months, 1 week ago: Here we go again!!!! another WHITE PAPER and another PROCLAMATION of it's BENEFITS to this SECTOR one has to wonder who will be paid and how much to produce this WHITE PAPER on Agriculture. why not do like other Jurisdictions do and form A MARKETING BOARD (Like the old BMC) this way the farmer gets paid for his produce and the authorities will know if there is enough of a given product to suffice the Country and how much would be left over for an export market (Marketing boards are an integral part of the farm economy in Canada.)it just has to be more efficiently operated than the OLD Entity was.the other part of the equation would be how strict the Nation intends to be on Praedial Larceny. ANOTHER WHITE PAPER???? I SAY NO. JUST ACTION

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Posted by Kenneth King 11 months, 1 week ago: Mr. Estwick has a point we need to grow more food or the import bill will remain high. Farmers need to do more in protecting their produce with a better security system and hopefully a more police patrol regularly will help to reduced the amount of theft occurring daily.