President Ali leads delegation to ‘Agro Fest’ in Barbados

President Dr Irfaan Ali is leading a delegation to attend ‘Agro Fest’- the National Agricultural Exhibition -to be held at Queen’s Park in Bridgetown, Barbados, from May 28-29.

The Head of State will be delivering the feature address on Friday afternoon at the event’s opening ceremony.

President Ali is accompanied by several government representatives, including the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha and the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond.

Over 45 Guyanese businesses, ranging from agro-processors to furniture manufacturers and jewellers, will be part of Guyana’s delegation at the expo.

Their participation is being organised by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) in collaboration with the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the government.

The Agro Fest will provide the opportunity for many new businesses, owned by young entrepreneurs to be given the chance to showcase their products internationally.

Both President Ali and the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, have reaffirmed their commitment to advance their nations together with many projects in several areas, including hospitality, import-substitution, food security, and agricultural diversification.

Several CARICOM heads, including the Barbadian Prime Minister, attended Guyana’s inaugural “Agri-Investment Forum and Expo: Investing in Vision 25 by 2025”, held between May 19-21, which was organised by the Government of Guyana and the CARICOM Secretariat.

During that event, the Heads of Government discussed the global shortages and high prices of imported food, fertilisers and other agricultural inputs; and the severe problems affecting transportation and logistics.

In an impact statement released after the three-day activity, CARICOM said the Heads noted “with great concern that CARICOM Member States continue to be deeply impacted by these developments which have resulted in a dramatic increase in the cost of food, exposing still further the region’s food insecurity due to its vulnerability to external influences and the impact of climate change.

The Group recognised that CARICOM member states have the capacity to attain a high level of food security for the Community as a whole provided that urgent action is taken to effectively implement necessary actions.” (Office of the President press release)