By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News
Ministers of Agriculture across the Caribbean have officially endorsed the “25 by 25 + 5” Implementation Plan, an expanded phase of CARICOM’s Agri-Food Systems Strategy, popularly known as the Vision 25 by 2025 Initiative. The plan aims to strengthen regional food security and self-sufficiency by 2030, reducing the region’s dependency on food imports.
Speaking during the high-level Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meeting, Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, shared encouraging progress figures, noting that the region’s food production has shown consistent year-on-year growth.
“At the regional level, data shows increasingly stronger growth — 57% achievement in 2022, 70% in 2023, and 82% in 2024 — representing a 23.1% increase in production between 2022 and 2024,” Mustapha said.
He emphasized that this progress provides a strong foundation for the extended 25 by 25 + 5 vision, which aims to produce 4.3 million tons of food by 2030. The extension, he said, enables CARICOM to scale up its achievements, deepen regional collaboration, and enhance mechanisms that support farmers and food producers.
Mustapha also urged member states to remove barriers to intra-regional trade and strengthen partnerships that ensure the sustainability of local agricultural sectors.
Highlighting Guyana’s leadership role, Mustapha outlined ambitious national production targets for 2030, including:
- 1 million tons of rice,
- 500,000 tons of vegetables,
- 300,000 tons of coconuts, and
- 100,000 tons of poultry.
He also noted that Guyana is scaling up production in corn, soy, root crops, ginger, turmeric, fruits, honey, and fisheries, reaffirming the country’s position as a regional hub for food supply, processing, and distribution.
“These targets are ambitious but reflect our determination to ensure that Guyana serves as a reliable hub for regional food production and supply,” he added.
The agriculture minister reiterated that the Agri-Food Systems Strategy, first launched to cut the Caribbean’s food import bill by 25% by 2025, remains a cornerstone of CARICOM’s regional integration efforts. The expanded timeline to 2030 seeks to consolidate gains, promote resilience, and achieve complete regional food security and sustainability.
