JAMAICA’S food import bill dipped slightly over the first nine months of 2023 but remains above the US$1-billion mark.

Data provided by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) show food imports from January to September last year were valued at US$1.038 billion, down slightly from the US$1.04 billion it was during the same period of the previous year. At that level, food imports accounted for 17.5 per cent of the total import bill for Jamaica which reached US$5.9 billion up to September. Food was the third-largest imports into Jamaica behind oil and gas, which was valued at US$1.8 billion, and machinery and transport equipment valued at US$1.2 billion over the period.

During the review period, the data show that food imported mainly for household consumption, and that includes beverages, rose by 4.6 per cent to US$837.1 million. “This was due mainly to higher imports of vegetables and fruit as well as cereal and cereal preparations,” the Statin bulletin said. The rest of the food imports was for industrial use.

On the other hand, food exports rose 12 per cent, reaching US$225 million over the period January to September 2023, up from US$201 million. Still, it remains about a fifth of the total food imports.

Still, of food exports, agricultural items earned US$69 million over the period, which was up 14.3 per cent from the year before. Growth in the earnings from products such as yams, coffee, other root crops and other agricultural exports accounted for most of the higher revenues. Yams in particular, which account for almost half the total earnings of agricultural exports, earned US$32 million, up 28 per cent. Coffee, the second biggest agricultural export earner, mustered a little under US$20 million, after rising by 21 per cent. In total, agricultural items make up 5.8 per cent of Jamaica’s total earnings from merchandise trade.

Of those food items exported after processing and falls under the category of manufactured products, the earnings rose by 12.2 per cent to US$286.9 million. This figure includes food, beverages and tobacco, the last of which is not classified as food.

However, the category alcoholic beverages, excluding rum, was the big performer earning US$56 million. Rum by itself earned US$51 million while other food items lumped together earned US$36.3 million. Sauces, a growing export category, earned US$27.5 million between January and September.

Delve deeper into food exports and you will see baked products being a big category for the island, earning US$22 million while fish and fish products earned US$15 million. Sugar, which was once king, earned a mere US$4 million and was the lowest earner amongst the category of manufactured food, beverages and tobacco. Even dairy products earned more than twice as much from exports than sugar, at US$9.8 million.

So, where is absorbing some of the increases in food exports? The data did not go into details about this, yet, it pointed out that for Caricom, the total earnings from food were up 35 per cent to US$37.4 million. Overall, for Caricom, exports were up while imports were down.

On the other side of the coin, the European Union stands out as the region that exported more food to Jamaica, with the country spending US$89 million on food from the EU.