Amid growing imports of hair extension and other beauty products, Caricom Chairman Roosevelt Skeritt recently made an appeal for consumers of the region to increase their appetite for locally made products.

Speaking at the just-concluded Caricom heads of government conference, Skerrit, who is also the prime minister of Dominica, said that in the wake of heightened concerns about food security, greater effort needs to be made around consuming what we produce as a region, especially if the Caribbean is to achieve its target of cutting the food import bill by at least a quarter by 2025.

In working towards this, he called for the sharing of knowledge, expertise and resources, noting however that countries if they are to truly achieve the objective, they must first begin to embark on a united front to improve and increase the production and quality of agricultural and other products in the Caribbean community.

“We have to eat what we produce! The power really is not in the hands of governments — the power of reducing the food import bill is in the hands of the people/consumers of the Caribbean. This, as the supermarkets will sell what we buy,” he stated, urging particularly women to lead the charge.

“We see a major importation of fake hair and eyelashes in the Caribbean because we are buying it … but if we can buy the agricultural produce and demand more regional products — then the supermarkets, restaurants and retailers will have to sell what is being demanded. So aside from of our purchases of acrylic nails and other items, let us also demand the items from Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados and St Lucia in order to see how quickly we can reduce the food import bill in the Caribbean,” Skerrit said.

Caricom countries at present are said to be importing more than 60-80 per cent of the food and other products they consume. Data for regional entity, Carib Export have indicated that between 2018-2020, Caricom’s food import bill was US$13.76 billion or approximately 5 per cent of gross domestic product. This, for many of its countries such as Jamaica, has resulted in a widening trade deficit, as the volume of goods imported, be it food or other items, far outweighs what the country sells to the rest of the world.

According to global data analytics firm The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), the fake hair market which includes wigs, false beard, eye lashes and other textile materials was up to 2021 valued at approximately US$5 billion, growing at that time at a compounded annual rate of over 48 per cent. According to the data, these also ranked as the world’s 561st most traded product. The top exporters of these products are China at US$3.2 billion followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh, Germany and Senegal. The top importers, on the other hand, were led by the United States at US$2 billion accompanied by Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who has been tasked with leading Caricom’s effort to grow production and increase its agricultural output, said that while some progress is being made, there is still much more left to be done. He use the opportunity to call for increased private sector investments to boost storage capacity in the region which he said was now barely hovering at 20 per cent.

Speaking on the progress to date of the 25 by 2025 initiative, he said, “Whether we are on track based on our original target, we are doing well and I believe we also now have the real possibility of meeting those targets.”

“In every single country we have been seeing more investments, interest, dynamism and this is [a move] in the right direction,” he added.