Drive to diversify regional agriculture

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

The Caribbean Agri-business Association (CABA) is far advanced in its mission to promote the necessary changes in agricultural and agro-processing practices that will see the region enjoying full economic benefits from its diverse range of agricultural produce.

President Dr Keith Amiel used an Editors' Forum at the Jamaica Agricultural Society's head office to share the vision and benefits of this regional transformation programme, which has already started to change the way agriculture is done across various territories - in collaboration, instead of in competition with each other.

"The associations of the future have to be vertically integrated complexes that go from research and development to find appropriate things to do or produce. Go on to biotechnology and how to multiply them; then to go onto another rung of the ladder - how to create extension services to convey this information, and these products, to the producers. Then, beyond that stage, we go to post-harvest, processing, product differentiation, branding and marketing, locally and internationally," he shared.

The CABA concept was born out of the recognition that the traditional dependence on primary producers could not provide the necessary volumes and efficiency to create the scale needed to compete effectively in the global arena.

Dr Amiel, who is also manager, corporate affairs of the Caribbean Broilers Group, said the methodology now being promoted had been tested successfully by the Caribbean Poultry Association, when it brought farmers together in clusters to facilitate the vertically integrated approach, which he described as the way of the future.

Having already identified 26 clusters which include traditional ventures such as sugar, poultry and honey, CABA is also looking to tap into the richness of the region's vast timber resources.

Development

"In the Caribbean, between Guyana, Suriname and Belize, there are purported to be 500 trees or plants that have some nutraceutical, pharmaceutical or cosmoceutical property. So a transition has to take place and, indeed, is taking place but the public needs to understand, too that the farmer is just a rung in this new vertically integrated chain clusters. In the CABA concept, all the differentiation, the further development of all our products, will take place in Jamaica and the Caribbean so that we will make the money here and we will have established a niche that will have a place in the global marketplace," Dr Ameil explained.

He lamented that up to two years ago, 86 per cent of Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee was being exported to Japan as green beans, where most of the value-added income was derived by way of product differentiation.

"We have the best Scotch bonnet pepper in the world, best ginger, best coffee and so on, even Sea Island Cotton, which is one of those things we send as raw material to Japan. This will not happen again. We will weave the cotton here, even the design of the shirts and products from Sea Island Cotton will be copyrighted to Jamaica and the Caribbean, so we will own the entire structure of the process."