BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, October 20, 2021 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – With the continuing disruptions to global supply chains, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, has said that a determined effort is required from the nation’s farmers and fishers to produce more of what is needed.
Prime Minister Harris made those remarks on the Tuesday, October 19 edition of Leadership Matters, which focused primarily on improving the agricultural and fisheries sectors in St. Kitts and Nevis.
The prime minister said the need for a boost in agricultural production locally becomes even more imperative in the context of what is unfolding around the world today with massive disruptions to global supply chains as a result of COVID-19 and other underlying factors.
Dr. Harris said, “We will see a consequential adverse movement in the price of items in the food basket linked, inter alia, to increase in transportation costs as fuel prices trend upward, and costs of goods are likely to increase as a consequence of the supply chain disruptions and shortages due to climate change.”
In this regard, Prime Minister Harris said the medium and long term solution for St. Kitts and Nevis is to produce more of what we need to feed ourselves.
He added, “We need to produce, store and distribute food at affordable prices. From a health perspective, a conscious effort has to be made by all of us to include more fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet. Fresh food is to be preferred over processed foods. Foods that are low in salt and sugar are better for our health and wellness. A determined effort is required by our farmers and fishers to produce more of what we need.”
“I think some of those things that we did reasonably well in or we did not do as well as we ought to, now with the improved technology we have to target these areas and focus on doing these five-ten crops or these two-three areas of livestock production in a significant way to make a difference and to fill the gap between local demand and supply because that supply in the end is being met through imports. The challenge with import is that once the boat doesn’t come we have problems and the COVID-19 has proven the unreliability of supply chains, and so there is an incentive for us nationally to want to produce more here for our people, our hotels etc.,” Dr. Harris continued.
Notwithstanding, Prime Minister Harris said he is encouraged by the increase in the number of persons who have taken advantage of the opportunities provided by the Government to earn through farming and fishing.
