> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # CARICOM's Agriculture Ministers Asked the Region to Buy Caribbean. Jamaica's Chamber of Commerce Told Them to Close the Price Gap First. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caribbean-week-agriculture-belize-jamaica-chamber-price-gap-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-30T16:42:50.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-04T05:16:32.000Z - Description: Belize's agriculture minister told Caribbean Week of Agriculture that the private sector is reluctant to buy regional goods. The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce president replied that price drives commercial decisions and governments must close the gap. CARICOM's food import bill exceeds US$6 billion. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Agriculture, CARICOM, Trade, Wire **Quick summary:** At Caribbean Week of Agriculture in Trelawny on 30 September, Belize's agriculture minister said the private sector is reluctant to buy regional goods. The president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce replied that price and quality drive commercial decisions and governments must close the gap. CARICOM's food import bill exceeds US$6 billion. By LCN Business Desk The disagreement at the centre of the Caribbean's food security plan was held in public this week, between a minister and a chamber of commerce, at a CARICOM event convened to advance it. Rodwell Ferguson, Belize's Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and New Growth Industries, told Caribbean Week of Agriculture in Trelawny, Jamaica, that governments are raising production while buyers look elsewhere. "As governments, we make the suggestion that this is what we want to do, while sometimes the private sector is reluctant to purchase within the region," he said, [the Jamaica Gleaner reported](https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20260930/jcc-govts-must-help-close-price-gap-caribbean-goods?ref=lacaribenanews.com). On consumers he was blunter: "I want it to be made in China or Europe, and that mentality needs to change." Emile Leiba, President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, did not dispute the preference. He disputed where the remedy sits. "I think any solid business person should support Caribbean products and should prefer Caribbean products. That is where governments would need to step in to make the Caribbean product more palatable." Leiba said commercial decisions turn on price, quality and demand, and that businesses cannot sacrifice competitiveness to support regional goods. He pointed to duties and tariffs as the lever governments hold. ## What is Belize offering the region? Five staples it says it already produces in surplus, and cannot move. Ferguson said Belize has achieved self-sufficiency in rice, beans, corn, chicken and soybeans. In a separate account of his remarks he put the list wider, covering corn, soybeans, rice, beans, animal feeds, beef, pork and poultry, and said that apart from its traditional citrus concentrate and sugar exports, "we have great difficulty exporting these other products to CARICOM", [Breaking Belize News reported](https://www.breakingbelizenews.com/2026/09/30/belize-calls-for-stronger-regional-trade-to-move-caribbean-food-across-markets/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). He named the obstacles in two groups. On cost: "High cost of labour, electricity, agri-inputs, raw materials, fuel and local transport affect the regional competitiveness of some commodities." On getting goods to market: "Direct and reliable shipping routes between Belize and the Caribbean islands are not very available, are too costly, and the shipments take too long." He also cited non-tariff barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. "I do not believe that we are trading as much as possible with each other," Ferguson told the plenary. "We must help each other survive." Guyana knows the certification half of that problem from its own side. A cassava producer in the Pomeroon has held certification for four years while the country counts 101 conformity assessment bodies, two of which are recognised abroad, set out in [A Pomeroon Cassava Maker, Certified Four Years](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/centaur-holdings-pomeroon-gnbs-certification-iso-export-ladder-2026/). ## What is the target the region is behind on? A quarter off a bill of more than US$6 billion, and the deadline has already moved once. CARICOM's Vision 25 by 2025 set out to cut the region's food import bill by 25 per cent. The Forty-Eighth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, held in Barbados on 21 February 2025, [extended it to 2030](https://caricom.org/food-security-initiative-expanded-extended-to-2030/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). The Community cited uncertainties in global trade, natural disasters including the consequences of Hurricane Beryl for agriculture, and continuing supply chain disruption. It also recorded progress: about a 24 per cent increase in food production across the region between 2022 and late 2024. | The initiative | As CARICOM states it | | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Food import bill | More than US$6 billion | | Target | A 25 per cent reduction | | Original deadline | 2025 | | Extended deadline | 2030 | | Extension agreed | 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, Barbados, 21 February 2025 | | Production growth recorded | About 24 per cent across the region, 2022 to late 2024 | Figures as published by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The plenary Ferguson and his counterparts sat in was titled "Achieving the Region's Vision 25 By 2025+5: The Roadmap for Regional Food Security and Food Systems Transformation". It was held on 28 September at the Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny. Caribbean Week of Agriculture concludes on 2 October. ## What did the ministers ask for? Money on different terms, and a market that behaves like one market. Floyd Green, Jamaica's Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, set out what his own country's production has done. "We used to average approximately 600,000 tonnes of domestic production. In 2022/2023 we hit our highest level ever at 841,000 tonnes," he said. On financing he was direct: "We need to redefine financing for the region and not try to fit the Caribbean into an archaic box." Shantal Munro-Knight, Barbados' Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, put the same point at the investor: "We must have investment partners who truly understand our nuances as a region." Also at the table were Lisa Jawahir, Saint Lucia's Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Sustainable Development; René Halkyer, the Food and Agriculture Organization's Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Dr Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. Ambassador David Prendergast, Director of Sectoral Programmes at the CARICOM Secretariat, moderated. The ministers asked partners to develop a financing model over the course of the week that reflects the region's exposure to climate shocks, its small markets and its limited collateral. ### What the title card shows Every data point on the article's title card, in text. The panel, "The target, and the argument about it": - **More than US$6 billion.** CARICOM's food import bill. Source: Caribbean Community. - **25 per cent.** The reduction Vision 25 by 2025 set out to achieve. Source: Caribbean Community. - **2030.** The extended deadline, moved from 2025\. Source: Caribbean Community. - **21 February 2025.** The date the 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Barbados agreed the extension. Source: Caribbean Community. - **About 24 per cent.** The increase in food production across the region between 2022 and late 2024\. Source: Caribbean Community. - **841,000 tonnes.** Jamaica's highest recorded domestic production, in 2022/2023, against a former average of about 600,000 tonnes. Source: Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining. The footer strip: - **Five staples.** Those Belize says it is self-sufficient in: rice, beans, corn, chicken and soybeans. - **2 October.** The date Caribbean Week of Agriculture concludes. - **Four ministers.** Agriculture ministers of Belize, Jamaica, Barbados and Saint Lucia named at the plenary. - **Seven months.** Since Guyana's President urged the region to dismantle its trade barriers in Belize. ## Has this been said before? By the Caribbean head of government who holds the file, in Belize, in February. President Irfaan Ali, who serves as CARICOM's Lead Head of Government with responsibility for Agriculture and Food Security, travelled to Belize in February 2026 and called on both countries to lead regional food production, urging Caribbean nations to dismantle the bureaucratic and artificial trade barriers limiting intra-Caribbean food exports. In April, Guyana's Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha named Belize a key contributor to Caribbean food security at the National Agriculture and Trade Show in Belmopan. This newspaper reported both, and the production-versus-access distinction they rest on, in [Belize Emerges as CARICOM's Food Security Benchmark as Regional Deadline Slips to 2030](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/belize-emerges-as-caricoms-food-security-benchmark-as-regional-deadline-slips-to-2030/). Seven months on, the country named as the benchmark is telling a regional plenary that it cannot get its surplus to market, and the barriers it lists are the ones the President asked the region to remove. Freight is the part that has moved, and not favourably. The Caribbean Private Sector Organisation has put between US$8 billion and US$10 billion of CARICOM's annual imports as exposed to restrictions at the Panama Canal, about a quarter to a third of the non-fuel import bill, reported in [The Panama Canal Cut Its Daily Booking Slots to 32](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/panama-canal-slot-cuts-caricom-import-exposure-2026/). A region paying more to bring food in from outside has a larger, not smaller, reason to move it between its own ports. ## Frequently Asked Questions What is Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2026? A CARICOM event held in Trelawny, Jamaica, concluding on 2 October 2026\. Its plenary on 28 September was titled "Achieving the Region's Vision 25 By 2025+5: The Roadmap for Regional Food Security and Food Systems Transformation" and was held at the Ocean Coral Spring Resort. What did Belize's agriculture minister say? Rodwell Ferguson said the private sector is sometimes reluctant to purchase within the region and that consumer preference for goods made in China or Europe needs to change. He said Belize is self-sufficient in rice, beans, corn, chicken and soybeans but has great difficulty exporting to CARICOM, citing high input and transport costs, unreliable and slow shipping, non-tariff barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. What did the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce say in response? Its president, Emile Leiba, said business decisions are driven by price, quality and demand and that firms cannot sacrifice competitiveness to buy regional. He said a solid business person should prefer Caribbean products, and that governments need to step in to make the Caribbean product more palatable, pointing to duties and tariffs. How large is CARICOM's food import bill and what is the target? The Caribbean Community puts the bill at more than US$6 billion. Vision 25 by 2025 aimed to cut it by 25 per cent. The 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, held in Barbados on 21 February 2025, extended the deadline to 2030, citing global trade uncertainty, natural disasters including Hurricane Beryl, and supply chain disruption. Has regional food production actually risen? Yes. CARICOM records about a 24 per cent increase in food production across the region between 2022 and late 2024\. Jamaica's agriculture minister Floyd Green said his country reached its highest recorded domestic production of 841,000 tonnes in 2022/2023, against a former average of about 600,000 tonnes.