If all goes well food processing in the region could be getting some very welcome support from an international organization.
Recently a representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) was in Grenada as part of the fact finding tour of the Caribbean and parts 9of Latin America to assess the state of agro- processing in this part of the world.
Ms. Clara Isabel Romero who working as a consultant for UNIDA is a specialist in food processing and her mission is assess that state of the agro industry in the Caribbean and report her findings to UNIDO.
When Barnacle’s Editor-in-Chief, Ian George caught up with the Guatemalan lady she was paying a visit to Mr. Dennis Noel of Noelville, manufacturers of Nut-Med pain relieving spray and cream, lemon grass tea and seasoning noni- based products and other items from locally produced raw materials.
She said her mission is to discover what are the main concerns and challenges the food processing sector is facing in the region, what are their latent strengths and the difficulties they face in matters of putting together a project proposal.
Romero explained that the information this study is attempting to unearth was requested by the CARIFORUM Secretariat and the European Union in the context of the Cotonou Agreement and the IPAC Agreement which are presently being negotiated.
Before coming to Grenada Romero’s mission took her to Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados, St. Vincent, St Kitts, Nevis, Belize, Guyana and the Bahamas and she still has on her itinerary St. Lucia, Suriname, Haiti and Dominican Republic.
The intention of the organization is to support to efforts of developing countries in the region to get out of raw material exportation and get into value added.
Manager of Noelville Mr. Dennis Noel expressed the view that apart from having a raw material base we in the region need to get the basic technology. He said we are not ready for the high tech methods that are being used in the more developed parts of the world.
Rather, he advocates the simple indigenous village methods of the sort used in Latin America.
Noel suggests setting up exchange visits between the people actually involved in agro- processing in the two regions Latin America and the Caribbean.
Romero concurred and said that part of the project may be to facilitate study tours which will lead to technology transfer, giving people knowledge about what is happening outside of their area and examples of what they could do to help their industry. She said it is not a matter of capital but a matter of having ideas and finding ways to make them work.
The consultant said the idea of the fact finding mission is to support the improvement of competitiveness and innovation in the food processing sector in the region.
In her view, based on her visit to the various countries Romero thinks there are lots of potential for this sector in the Caribbean. She said there is work to be done on improving the business environment but there is definitely potential.
She said everywhere she goes there are entrepreneurs already doing things, people with ideas, innovative products being developed all over the region.
In her view they just need some support in terms of technology and finance to improve on what they are doing.
Romero explained that UNIDO is an agency that mainly gives technical assistance and training rather than financial assistance and is trying to have more of a presence in the region.
She thinks that with the EU involved in the project and interested in what is happening it is possible that it will seek some form of international funding to assist in the development of the food processing industry in the Caribbean. UNIDO is headquartered in Vienna.
Noel thinks this sort of attention is good for the region as he thinks countries in the Caribbean which were once colonies and produced for the industrial world now have to go to value added products in order to improve their economies, making money through export.
He said we cannot just continue to export raw material if we are to progress but rather have to change the situation around, enhance our capabilities and reap to maximum benefits from our resources.