FAO Regional Representative, Mario Lubetkin, met in Santiago with Sergio Diaz-Granados, President of CAF, to address a common work agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Santiago, March 13th, 2023 – FAO’s Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mario Lubetkin, held a working meeting last Wednesday with the President of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), Sergio Díaz-Granados, to review a common work agenda to strengthen and identify opportunities for cooperation and the mobilization of investments to accelerate the transformation of agri-food systems.
The strengthening of the partnership between FAO and CAF in Latin America and the Caribbean will make it possible to join efforts and establish complementary actions, considering the technical and operational capacities of both institutions through the design, financing, and implementation of projects and technical assistance programs that contribute to responding to the current challenges of eradicating poverty and hunger and reducing inequalities in the region.
“For FAO, it is essential to strengthening multisectoral alliances that allow us to complement and make our efforts more efficient and that investments can generate greater impact and profound transformations in agri-food systems for the benefit of people and the planet,” said Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
FAO’s meeting with CAF is part of the work of the United Nations organization to promote a multilateral agenda with different countries and entities in the region to address the fight against hunger and malnutrition, in addition to responding to the challenges arising from the consequences of climate change.`=
I am responding to “If we knew better”, comments. You mentioned that there are no “No value added and no new industrials sites”. For agro processing there must be reliable sources of the raw product and must be reasonably priced. The first emphasis is production for local consumption and reduce on imports, but again prices must be competitive. It’s the usual norm that your fixed operating cost is recovered from the domestic market production, and exports can be marketed at variable cost plus profit margin and be competitive in the foreign market. Industrial sheds is one component, there must reliable production, cost of the raw material, production cost, competitive selling prices in both the domestic and export market. There is far more than what’s meets the eyes.
Meanwhile Dominica’s government thinks just growing and selling raw crops is the best thing to do. No value added. No new industrial sites for our agro processors to increase production capacity and productin standards. NOTHING IN PLACE. Meanwhile every other caribbean and latin american country is taking advantage of agro processing since Covid. After PM take his share and feels it is the best time for HIM will we see a change. Meanwhile the Canefield industrial estate remains a mess, unsuitable for food and cosmetic production, no sheds available, no modern sheds etc etc.