By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The government has decided to mandate that all investors be required to source 40 percent of their food needs locally from farmers, fishermen and other suppliers.

Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture and marine resources, said all Heads of Agreement deals for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects will require this threshold to be met as a means to increase market access and sales for local producers.

Speaking to the Eleuthera Business Outlook Conference webinar, Mr Pintard added that 75 percent of the government's food spending must be on locally-produced items before purchasing from other sources.

He warned, however, that in order for this to work, Bahamians must be able to produce quality products in sufficient quantities that are up to standard. This, he acknowledged, must be done in a "sustainable and consistent manner" with a price point that "must make sense".

"We have had flashes of brilliance in our history where, including Eleuthera, we have produced and exported a variety of crops," he added. "Pineapples, of course, were sent not just to the US but across the Atlantic. Salad crops were sent directly to the US, and so was citrus.

"However, we have gone backwards. The short of that story is that over the past 15 years agriculture production has contracted. For some items it has been 14 percent, and for others it has been less."

Mr Pintard continued: "Our present food bill is approximately $600m, and that is if you are accounting for crops, fruits, vegetables, non-food agriculture products such as foliage, flowers, ornamentals, and food products such as poultry, beef and beef derivatives, swine as well as small ruminants. If you were to add value-added products, processed foods, our food bill then exceeds $600m, and some estimates have it pegged at roughly $1bn.

"We have the capacity to do better and we must do better. The Ministry is working in tandem with local professionals, the private sector and our international partners, including the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) out of Rome, which is really the largest multilateral organisation in the world addressing food security. We presently sit on the executive management team referred to as the council.

"We are also sitting on the executive council of IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture), which is the agriculture arm. They are seated in Costa Rica, and we are happy to be working with 34 countries throughout the region in Latin America and the Caribbean. We also work with the CARICOM agriculture arm, CARDI (Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute)," the minister said.

"We are in the process of implementing an emergency food programme that is informed, not just by best practices globally, but by many of the practices locally that we have in fact fashioned to collaboration with various stakeholders."