THE cheap supply of energy through the use of renewables can help to cut this island’s food import bill.
In yesterday’s debate on the Fair Trading Commission (Amend-ment) Bill 2020 and the Utilities Regulations (Amendment) Bill 2020, Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Sandra Husbands, said the large-scale use of renewable energy will help build the island’s agro-processing industry.
“This will help to forge the way for new manufacturers in Barbados to be able to produce and be competitive. We won’t be able to do everything, but with the higher level production capabilities that our skills can manage and that our labour costs can carry with available energy at a reasonable cost, Barbados is going to be able to pursue production and pursue agro-processing.
“What will that mean? That we can participate fully without hesitation in the program that is being designed by the CARICOM private sector organization who had been tasked with how we can replace $450 million worth of food products into CARICOM, so that it can give our countries a fighting chance to save foreign exchange. But more importantly, generate investment and generate jobs for our people,” she outlined.
Husbands stated therefore Barbados could get involved in such a movement and in agro-processing to not only create a number of products to consume domestically in homes, but also in hotels when visitors return, as well as to export them across the region.
“If we can save $700 million in fuel imports, that is money we do not have to look for. If we can use the energy to start producing goods and reduce our own import bill and create jobs for people, that is 100 million dollars that we can generate right there by reducing imports into the Barbadian economy,” the MP for St. James South told the Lower House. (JMB)