Bowen: Eat local
Date: Wed 13-Oct-1993
Paper Page: 3A
Publication: Daily Nation
BARBADIANS still like too much foreign food.
"Do we really need to spend in excess of $500 000 annually on imports of
lettuce or $6.2 million on English potatoes when we have our own sweet
potatoes?" asked Minister of Agriculture David Bowen yesterday at a
nutrition seminar at Caribbee Hotel.
Bowen also queried why Barbados was spending $10.8 million of "our scarce
foreign exchange" to import raw sugar or $1 million on English apples.
Food imports peaked at $215.8 million in 1991, while the following year the
figures stood at $186.8 million, a decline of 13.4 per cent, he said. He wants
those in the food and beverage industry to do their part, too, by making greater
use of local foods. Be innovative, he told restaurateurs; find attractive ways
of presenting local vegetables and root crops. He said Barbados is almost
self-sufficient in the production of whole chickens, table eggs, fresh
vegetables, fresh pork and rootcrops.
Chief economist in the Ministry of Agriculture Cephas Gooding said new
programmes will be aimed at encouraging Barbadians to buy more local produce.
"What is important is that we reduce the deficit between exports and
imports," Gooding said.
The minister was speaking at a seminar on food and nutrition strategies for
Barbados during the 1990s and beyond.