The Canadian Hunger Fund (CHF) Caribbean is stressing the importance of fresh produce standards as a critical aspect of regional trade.
Agri-business and Marketing Coordinator of CHF Caribbean, Dr. Nadia Pacquette Anselm says standards are of utmost importance if Caribbean nations are to benefit from regional and international trade.
“The fresh produce standard highlights key commodities that are being traded regionally and the opportunities that present themselves across the region are about $4.5-5 billion worth of trade. Our import bill is significant in the Caribbean region and CHF is seeing it as an opportunity for enhanced trade among territories of the region not only for export but among member territories and improving on our enhancement. We note that the Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) is here to promote the enhancement and competitiveness of agricultural trade and we see it fitting to partner with this organization today to highlight the importance of fresh produce standards as an important and pivotal instrument for enhancing the quality of fresh produce entering those markets,” she stated.
CHF Caribbean is implementing the promotion of regional opportunities through enterprise and linkages, (PROPEL) project.
The project is being implemented in eight Caribbean countries, namely Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
Dr. explained, “The project’s aim is to actually enhance the quality and volumes of fresh produce leading our producers and small holder farmers into what is called the HVM’s-high volume markets. This can be defined as supermarkets, hotels, certain restaurants, cruise lines and the export market. CHF is partnering with a number of local entities across the Caribbean in its 8 beneficiary countries to implement issues regarding production, quality standards and providing technical support in various aspects to producer groups and organizations such as the Ministry of Agriculture and those implementing standards across member states countries.”
Pacquette-Anselm was speaking at a handing-over ceremony of equipment to farmers last Thursday.