BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - CONSUMERS, in the near future, could expect to see an increase in certain food items.
According to Minister of Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hon. Timothy Harris, in an interview with SKNVibes yesterday, due to drought in the United States of America (which is one of our major import sources), prices of a number of food items may increase.
"We are a major importer of food products and therefore we are impacted by global movements or movements in prices from our source market. In this particular case, in one of our major source markets, the USA, we are learning that there are market forces that are leading to an increase in prices of grain related products as a result of drought," Harris explained.
Harris said that the drought has impacted the US plains in a significant way and the forecasts are that there will be a significant reduction in grain output over a period of time which would lead to inflation especially if the demand is larger than the supply.
"We have to continue to monitor but the initial predictions by the market panelists are that the prices are going to increase, prices in corn related products in particular," he said.
Consumers may soon be paying more to purchase grain related products which include flour, rice, pastas, crackers and oatmeal, and corn-based products including corn, cornmeal, vegetable oils, margarine, biscuits, candy, certain cereals and sweeteners.
Harris said that the government is hoping that prices would stabilised but the quantity of demand is not large enough to impact external markets with respect to prices.
"We will have to wait to see what happens as our wholesalers make orders and the shipments come into the country, what would be the movement of the prices, but for now, in the source market from which we import, prices are moving upwards which means those are the prices that we may become locked into and so that is the concern for us," he explained.
With regards to our own agricultural sector and self sustenance, Harris said, had the government developed agriculture and provided the necessary policy and financial support, and technical inputs into the sector, it would have reached much further with regards to the import of some goods.
The agriculture Minister said that the sector would like to link the local productions such as mangoes, wax apples and guavas, to health care living as an alternative to some of the things that the country imports.
Harris stressed that the agricultural sector is not being taken seriously with regards to food security, noting that if given the push it needs, the sector can very well sustain the Federation to a certain extent.
He said that it is only when food prices increase that people remember there is a farming community.
"The people begin to ask why these things are not available locally. For them to be available locally the farming community has to see them as profitable engagement. It means then that there have to be sustained high demands and preference for these goods that are locally produced and it means that the policy environment has to be such that the critical input that will ensure the endured interest of the farmers, those inputs are being provided at competitive and affordable prices," he explained.
He said that, if provided with the necessary financing and resources needed, the Federation could utilise the local farming community and agro-processing plant and address or minimise the country's vulnerabilities to some of the fluctuation in price movement.
"My own view is that we have not given the fullest possible support to the agricultural sector as consistently as we can," Harris said.
