The process of slashing the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025 and consumers seeing the impact of that reduction will be gradual, says Prime Minister Mia Mottley.Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the efforts by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders to accomplish the goal, she said it would take time to bring regional agricultural production up to scale.Mottley made the comments on Tuesday in response to a question posed by Barbados TODAY following a press conference held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre during the Eighth CARICOM-Cuba Summit underway here.The Prime Minister said the 25 by 2025 Initiative would see a price dip in regionally produced fruit and vegetables and then in regionally produced agro-products and meats.“We’re trying to do it over a period of time. You’ll see some reductions in terms of those vegetables and fruits that we would not otherwise be able to get here and that’s where we’re trying to open up production in our imports from Guyana, imports from northern Brazil [and so on]; that’s a work in progress now,” she said.
