MONTEGO BAY, St James — Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Alando Terrelonge is hoping that the concept of an Agriculture Stock Exchange Market, one of the ideas that emerged from three days of discussions at the 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, will actually get off the drawing board.

It has been pitched as a potential investment opportunity for Jamaicans who have an interest in farming but live beyond the country’s borders.

“One consideration that we are looking at out of this conference is developing a kind of agro stock-ex market. If you are living in France and you know that you really want to invest in the agriculture industry but you can’t own a farm and you don’t have the time to plant and watch it grow, you are concerned about safety and security, how do we create an investment portal to invest in the agri business?” Terrelonge said.

He was speaking during Wednesday’s post-Cabinet media briefing that was incorporated into the agenda of the diaspora conference.

While Terrelonge pointed out that the details would need to be hammered out, he appeared to embrace the idea.

“You could be in Nigeria, South Africa, you could be in Chile or Panama, but you can get the rates of returns out of the farming sector. It’s a wonderful concept. We’re hoping that in the next few years that this would also be one of the outcomes,” he said.

“You do have some investors, persons who are not farmers per say, but they wish to capitalise on the growth sectors — whether it’s agriculture, fisheries or mining. What we are looking at now with members of the diaspora, which is a concept to be further discussed with Minister [of agriculture Floyd] Green and his team, is how do we now develop this bank of resources,” he added.

In explaining why he thought the concept was worth exploring, Terrelonge spoke of the demand for local produce internationally.

“Throughout our travels we have always been promoting that agri industry. We have recognised that certainly over the last 40 years we are now seeing unprecedented growth across many different sectors. The demand for orchard crops across the world — ackee has now become the new vegetarian food; it is the new scrambled egg of the world — the demand for breadfruit, the demand for mangoes, and other crops. This all provides a great opportunity for investment in Jamaica’s agri industries,” the state minster said.

He was elated that the agro stock exchange concept is one of the achievements to come from the conference.

“We’re looking always, when we leave conference, what are the deliverables? We do believe that this would be an amazing deliverable. Because it also helps the diasporians to invest [in] and capitalise on the growth in our agriculture, fisheries and mining sectors,” he said.

According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, who described the conference as a resounding success, 1,200 |delegates from 17 countries attended the event. It began with a church service at the Burchell Memorial Baptist Church in Montego Bay on Sunday followed by discussions from Monday to Wednesday.