[This is an excerpt from an article in The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and Policy Studies. Opinions expressed do not reflect the position of the Round Table editorial board.]

Reducing deepening dependence of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) countries on imported food is a top priority of their governments. Accordingly, it is being tackled at the highest levels of policy at both collective and country-specific levels. Highlighting the food security concern, a survey conducted by the CARICOM Secretariat and the World Food Programme in 2022 estimated food insecurity at 40%. There are other reports that imported processed foods accounted for up to 90% of items in this food category. Emphasizing the food security concern further, it was also reported by the CARICOM Secretariat that for the period 2018 to 2020, its member countries cumulatively spent US$13.8 billion on food imports. This expenditure amounted to 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this period. Another related wide-spread concern was the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases, notably diabetes and hypertension, which are overwhelmingly attributed to diets rich in processed foods.

The initial overarching policy objective of the collective food security plan set out by CARICOM Heads of Government was to cut food imports in monetary terms by 25% of GDP by 2025 (25 by 2025) based on invigorating and re-purposing agriculture. At the time of launching in 2021, the plan was underpinned by several over-riding priority areas for action inclusive of the following:

1. resource mobilisation, including for capacity building in crop production and value chain development to help member states achieve the targets;

2. removal of non-tariff barriers to intra-regional agricultural trade; promotion of food import substitution and cross-border investments in agriculture; and approval of agricultural clearance mechanisms in member countries;

3. collaboration among member countries to introduce a regional agricultural insurance mechanism;

4. implementation of a government-to-government electronic marketing system for agriculture;

5. building out key priorities in the Regional Youth and Women in Agriculture Strategy; and

6. mounting visibility and communication campaigns in support of the 25 by 2025 plan.

Implementation of the 25 by 2025 project began in 2021 and it focused on selected agricultural commodities for the CARICOM region as a whole. The commodities selected included important traditional drivers of growth of the agricultural economy in the CARICOM area generally. Amongst the commodities are also high-nutrient fruits, vegetables, and animal-based foods which altogether contribute healthier eating options to improve overall health.

For each commodity group, targets measured in metric tons of produce were set for the CARICOM region as a whole. Individual participating member countries were also assigned specific targets within selected commodity groups. The results of the 25 by 2025 project were reported at the end of 2024 to determine the extent to which targets were met for the onset of year 2025. The commodity groups selected, their overall 2025 production targets, and the extent to which the targets were met are shown in Table 1.

Regarding the overall regional target for 2025, it was reported that 82% of it was met. Moreover, relative to the 2018 expenditure on importing food, it was estimated that the regional food import bill was slashed by 12% of GDP or approximately US$0.25 billion.

The performances of individual reporting countries on their production targets are summarised in Table 2 below. Based on levels of success in achieving the corresponding targets, the countries were split into two distinct groups. One group including Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Suriname, achieved targets ranging from 63% to 88%. In contrast, much lower performances ranging from 5% to 29% of corresponding targets were reported for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and Grenada.

For Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, and Barbados to a lesser extent, reported damage to their agriculture sectors by Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 must be taken into account. Damage to the sectors ranged from less than 5% in Barbados to 85% in Grenada. In monetary terms, the cumulative loss to the sectors was estimated at US$159.3 million.

In the interest of brevity, several selected comments are offered here on the conceptualisation and results of the 25 by 2025 project for the purpose of strengthening it, moving forward. First, regarding conceptualisation, the project was a complex undertaking of relatively short duration to achieve an ambitious 25% GDP cut in food imports. Many critically relevant factors that were likely to be at play were not incorporated in the study to assess their impact on production of the commodities. For example, high cost of production in the agricultural sector, low wages, limited arable land and their increasing fragmentation, small pool of farmers, rampant praedial larceny, and changing conditions due to climate change will contribute to under performance. All these factors are causes for agriculture being a relatively insignificant contributor to GDP in most CARICOM countries. Moving forward, they must be considered in the food security plan for the purpose of bringing about the right structural change to reverse the fortunes of agriculture catering for adequate food and nutrition security.

Leonard W. O’Garro is with the Institute for Food and Nutrition Security, University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana.