Pandemic turnaround
Jamaica is exporting more agricultural products. The Agricultural Investment Corporation (Agri-invest) said in mid-May that the island earned just over US$1.4 billion from exports in 2021, an increase over earnings in 2020.
Data from the Statistical Institute of (Statin) show that this was 15.2 per cent higher than the 2020 out-turn. Agriculture industry exports increased by 8.1 per cent compared to 2020.
In particular, there was a 4.4 per cent increase in yam exports above US$35 million in 2020. Other sectors which saw an increase were food and beverages and coffee rose by 34.3 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively.
Alexander Powell, CEO of Agri-Invest, told the Jamaica Observer, ‘The country’s exports are slowly recovering from pre-pandemic period.”
In 2020 when the pandemic hit, there was an excess of produce for local markets as farmers sought sales for output that were no longer in demand by the hotel sector which was shuttered due to COVID-19.
A 2020 USDA report notes that excess agricultural produce was a result of crops that were in the field for harvesting and sale to the hotel, restaurant and institutional (HRI) sector.
2020 glut
When the COVID-19 virus was first detected on Jamaican shores, the report noted, “the HRI sector has seen a drastic reduction in business, and many of them have closed their establishments due to lack of clients and closure of air and seaports to regular travel. Farmers that usually sell to these markets were then left holding millions of dollars in local fresh produce. To combat this situation, the GOJ, through MICAF, has provided stimulus packages geared at assisting farmers in finding alternate markets for their produce. More than $1 billion (US$6.8 million) has been allocated to the ministry for a number of initiatives and strategies to rescue the agriculture and food sector.”
The 2020 Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (ESSJ) indicates that real value added (RVA) for the agriculture, forestry & fishing industry contracted by 1.4 per cent relative to 2019. The decline in traditional export crops, animal farming and fishing outweighed an increase in other agricultural crops.
The ESSJ states that the industry’s performance was the result of the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy coupled with adverse weather conditions.
Further decline was tempered by the reorganisation of the Government’s productivity programme to facilitate the swift recovery of the agricultural sector.
The sector also benefitted from funding support to priority initiatives to include the buy-back programme; subsidies and incentives for selected livestock farmers, sugar cane, cocoa and coffee farmers; egg and pork industry; enhanced fisheries resilience; disaster risk and mitigation programme; and equipment and infrastructure development.
2020 exports
Compared with 2019, traditional agricultural commodities export earnings increased to US$18.5 million compared with US$16.1 million in 2019. This was supported by earnings from the export of banana and coffee by 25.6 per cent and 32.7 per cent to US$726,000 and US$15.9 million, respectively.
The remaining three of the five traditional export crops recorded reduced earnings — citrus (fresh fruits), by 53.1 per cent to US$383,000, cocoa, by 23.3 per cent to US$348 000 and pimento by 45.7 per cent to US$1.2 million. Coffee accounted for 85.5 per cent of total traditional agricultural commodities export earnings compared with 74.3 per cent in 2019, according to the ESSJ.