“The world is emerging from the most serious food crisis since the Great Depression. The food being imported by the countries shows our vulnerability and has effectively put an end to the concept of cheap food. The crisis has focused attention on agriculture as the strategic sector for development and the survival of the population,” said Minister Tufton.

According to the Director General of IICA, Chelston Brathwaite, “the private sector plays a predominant role in agriculture in the region and for that reason I trust that its opinions will be heard during the deliberations of the Ministerial Meeting.”

The Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Integration of the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin Larocque, explained that one of the body’s objectives was to promote partnerships and dialogue between the public sector and its private counterparts. “Our member countries know about the importance of strengthening ties”, he said.

“Jamaica wants to drive home this message at the highest levels in order to ratify the preponderant role of the private sector”, said Tufton, who took advantage of the opportunity to urge more investment in agriculture, asserting that “agriculture is of strategic importance for the subsistence of our peoples.”

Taking part in the Dialogue were various business organizations and individuals from Brazil, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Canada, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Mexico, Barbados and Saint Lucia.

The main objective of the activity was to discuss the opportunities and difficulties that the private sector faces in increasing its competitiveness in three critical areas:

• Credit, financing and risk mitigation
• Competition under new and different trade agreements
• The role of innovation

During the Dialogue in Jamaica, the participants also sought to identify key policies and programs that could be used to tackle the difficulties and tap the opportunities through public and private interventions or public-private partnerships.

The Dialogue was coordinated by Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, with support from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture IICA), an agency that is serving as the Technical Secretariat of the hemispheric meetings that took place that week in Montego Bay. Specifically, IICA’s Inter-American Program for the Promotion of Trade, Agribusiness and Food Safety, and its Director, Miguel Garcia, provided support for the Dialogue.

For further information
patricia.leon@iica.int