Sending delegation to Jamaica’s Denbigh Agricultural Show

Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Bahamas is looking to source agricultural produce from Jamaica as well as seeking strategic partnerships with local players in the agricultural sector.

To this end, the Bahamas Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs Minister, Clay Sweeting will be leading a delegation to Jamaica to visit the 68th Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show, which starts this week. The annual event will be held from July 25 to August 1.

The delegation will include officials from the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI), the Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation (BAIC) and the Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority. The BAMSI is looking to source new vendors, tissue culture and other farming inputs.

Chairman of BAMSI, Tyrel Young has disclosed that the organisation is “looking to partner with local Jamaican entities in the processing industry, industrial farming industry and poultry farming to possibly engage in a memorandum of understandings for the training of BAMSI staff in these areas. This will widen the experience and knowledge of our extension officers, which will allow BAMSI to be the trainers as we should be to farmers and processors in regards to these sectors”.

During the week, the delegation is also expected to visit poultry farming facilities such as Caribbean Broilers and Jamaica Broilers. Chairman of BAIC Leroy Major said the corporation looks to engage with investors during the week, pointing to its significant interest expressed in animal feed production, poultry processing, egg production and other agro-industrial enterprises.

Arising from this fact, he argued that the BAIC is well poised to contribute to discussions while balancing external interests and national development. Minister Sweeting for his part explained that his government is looking to revitalize the country’s poultry industry noting that the poultry industry is one of the fastest-growing agricultural sub-sectors, especially in developing countries with an expected growth rate of 15 percent by 2027.”

‘HUGE MARKET FOR POULTRY PRODUCTS’

He made the point, “there is a huge market for poultry products in The Bahamas that has been untapped for years, but can be revitalised”.

The Minister went on to acknowledge that, “chicken is a mainstay of the national diet in this country (Jamaica). They are relatively easy to raise, however, we only domestically produce around five percent of our consumption”.

He advised that, “the Bahamas was once 100 per cent self-sufficient in table eggs and we had a thriving broiler as well. It is important that as a government we provide policies to encourage growth in this sub-sector. However, we also need the support and want to encourage private development investment to revive the industry. It is important that we are direct with our approach to feed ourselves and to create opportunities simultaneously”.

Jamaica’s poultry industry

The Minister acknowledged that Jamaica is one of the Caribbean countries that have developed a robust poultry sector with a significant investment in the industry. According to him, ”the poultry industry in Jamaica contributes between 15 and 20 percent of the Agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). It creates directly and indirectly economic activity and livelihood for over 100,000 persons and is a major alleviator of unemployment in the rural areas.”

Minister Sweeting remarked, “our Caribbean counterparts such as Jamaica have done extremely well, and we hope to replicate a model similar to their poultry structure in The Bahamas.”