Green has high hopes for agriculture in 2021
Published:Wednesday | December 30, 2020 | 12:17 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Despite the battering the sector has taken from the COVID-19 pandemic and torrential rains in October and November, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Floyd Green is expressing confidence in the farmers’ ability to bounce back for a better 2021.
In fact, he told The Gleaner, the recovery process has already begun.
“It has been a tough year, but we have seen glimmers of hope and sunshine. The reality is COVID was unexpected, causing initial hardships, but then our farmers started to rebound and the rains came, causing more hardship, and again, more of our farmers have been able to rebound,” Green said following a tour of the Longville Park Farm in Clarendon on Monday
He added that the sector has seen some positive trajectories, including a greater demand for bananas, resulting in increased exports, as well as tilapia.
In addition, the agriculture minister said, pineapples and other products were being sent into new markets.
“We seeing milk making it into Trinidad for the first time during this COVID crisis. On the agricultural side, there have been a lot of challenges, but for 2021, we are very optimistic because of the new opportunities,” he stressed.
He also noted that there were several entrepreneurs investing in home-delivery services for agricultural produce.
“I think that has grown in the market. What we saw during COVID is that there is still a lot of untapped market for Jamaican produce and we have to find ways using model and innovative ways for distribution channels to get it to those people,” said Green.