The Caribbean Community or CARICOM is regional integration organization established to promote economic integration, coordination of foreign policy, and cooperation among its member states in the Caribbean. As part of economic cooperation, CARICOM strives for improving intra-regional trade and create wealth and economic opportunity for the agriculture sector for every CARICOM Member State. An important initiative in this regard is the CARICOM “Vision 25 by 2025 Initiative”, a long term social and economic partnership between: Member States, the Regional Private Sector (CARICOM Private Sector Organization-CPSO), Regional Organizations, Producer Groups, Development Partners and Civil Society which outlines actions and critical areas of intervention to tackle the Region’s rising food import bill, improve intra-regional trade, and create wealth and economic opportunity for every CARICOM Member State. The 25 x 2025 Initiative, launched in 2022, targeted the reduction of the Region’s more than $6B food import bill by 25 percent by 2025. At the CARICOM 48th Regular Heads of Government Meeting in February 2025, the timeline was extended from 2025 to 2030, and the name updated to “25 × 25+5”, to build on early successes.
The 25 X 2025 Initiative is becoming a success story. On February 21, 2025, Dr. Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana and Lead Head of Government with responsibility for agriculture and food security in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, at the end of the 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Barbados, highlighted the positive impacts of the Initiative. Dr. Irfaan Ali highlighted that from 2022 to the end of October/November 2024, CARICOM witnessed about 24 percent increase in food production across the Region. Moreover, there have been major investments in infrastructure to support food production, whether it’s cold storage, farm-to-market access roads, solar dryer facilities, loan approval, establishment of dairy facilities. There has also been significant increase in private sector investment and lending in the agriculture sector and the food production chain within the Region.
On May 14, 2025, Ambassador David Prendergast, Director, Sectoral Programmes at the CARICOM Secretariat, has highlighted the positive results of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) 25 x 2025+5 Initiative. He identified the key advancements in the approval and implementation of the Trade Policy for Animal and Animal Products (TPAAP), Regional Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy, Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS) Guidelines for Trade in 19 special agricultural commodities, and the Alternate SPS Dispute Settlement Mechanism.
“We are also seeing progress in some areas such as the introduction of a regional agricultural insurance product; increased cross-border investment; increased resource mobilisation and coordination towards the implementation of the 25 by 2025 Initiative; increased private sector involvement; large scale private sector investment in the sector – dairy, small ruminants, soya and poultry production; increased agricultural production in Member States (introduction of new/niche crops); development of a Regional Electronic Agriculture Market Information System; establishment of a US$100M fund for regional agriculture, and the Caribbean Food Systems Investment Initiative (CFSII)”, Amb. Prendergast remarked at the opening of the Caribbean Poultry Association’s Eighth International Technical Symposium and Exhibition in Jamaica. “These initiatives, along with the introduction of new technologies, technical assistance programmes, enhanced alignment among development partners, and investments in cold storage and greenhouse technology, are collectively driving us towards greater food and nutrition security,” he said.
CARICOM’s 25×2025 initiative has led to a marked increase in regional food production, with greater private-sector investment in crops, poultry, and dairy. It has improved intra-regional trade through harmonized policies and introduced real-time digital tools like e-agriculture systems. Youth engagement and climate-smart farming have been prioritized, enhancing sustainability. The launch of a food security dashboard and regional insurance schemes has strengthened resilience. These combined efforts are reducing CARICOM’s food import bill while promoting agricultural self-sufficiency.
