The chairman of Caribbean Chemicals Limited Chairman says reducing this country's billion U.S. dollar food import bill could result in benefits that include more access to foreign exchange.
00:00We're importing close to about 5 or 6 million U.S. of pineapple products into Trinidad alone and these are just by the food importers. I'm not talking about juices and concentrates and all of those sort of things.
00:15Caribbean Chemicals Limited Chairman Joe Perez is speaking during a panel at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce's Business Outlook 2025.
00:23From an agriculture sector point of view, focusing on 5 crops a year and a 5-year plan and doing it for every year by the time you reach a third year, we have 15 crops already on a plan to reduce the significant food import bill.
00:38Now think about if we could cut our 1.3 billion U.S. dollar food import bill by 10 or 20 or 30 percent over the next 5 years. What the U.S. dollar availability to you and me and everybody else in Trinidad would mean?
00:53Reference was then made to the role one state-owned enterprise could play in finding a solution.
00:58It's easier for a Vemco and a Matux and these food processors to deal with one purchaser in Miami or California who has a co-op of 200 farmers.
01:11Because he doesn't have to deal with 50 farmers in Trinidad who all want to deliver on different days and all have different quality.
01:19When he goes to his buyer in Miami and he says, I want 40 boxes of size A or grade A tomatoes, that's what he's going to get.
01:29So we have a long way to get to that stage.
01:32And that's where I think NAMDEF Co. comes in as a significant contributor to the development of our culture in Trinidad.
01:39Independent Senator and Economist Dr. Marley Nats spoke about the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic that ought to be applied.
01:46So you have varying tariff and non-tariff barriers throughout the region, which I could imagine frustrates our private sector,
01:56not just the private sector in Trinidad and Tobago, but the regional private sector that recognizes that the Caribbean market is where we want to be
02:04because we can enjoy the economies of scale by producing for export.
02:09Planning Economic Affairs and Developmental Minister Dr. Kennedy Surat Singh spoke before the panel discussion.
02:15There's a program we want to launch called Happy Harvest.
02:19How do we take farmers and help them to become a lot more, to bring technology to help them in the farming industry?
02:28It was one of the plans the minister said the new government has for diversifying the economy.
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