Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has challenged the local agricultural sector to make a greater effort to satisfy the demands of Jamaica’s tourism sector for fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry.
Mr. Bartlett says there is a symbiotic relationship between tourism and agriculture and Jamaica needs to do more to leverage that relationship to the benefit of the people.
He says agri-tourism is a vital part of the experiences marketed all across the globe and Jamaica has not done very well in building out agri- tourism.
The tourism minister says the demand for agricultural produce by the tourism sector is valued at some $40 b.
Of this, poultry, meats and seafood alone accounted for 75% of this total value, fruits accounted for another 10% and vegetables accounted for 6.4%.
Local farmers were also encouraged to look beyond supplying the hotel sector to other areas, including eco-tourism and farm-to-table tourism, to build out visitor experiences.
The minister notes that more and more travellers are visiting farms for educational and recreational purposes.
He was speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony for the 67th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural Industrial and Food show in May Pen, Clarendon.
The Ministry of Tourism through its tourism linkages network, has been taking a proactive approach to using Jamaican food by implementing initiatives to equip farmers and agri-processors to take advantage of economic opportunities in the tourism sector and provide bigger markets for their produce.
In addition, the tourism linkages network, through the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), has committed over $24 m to projects to improve agricultural productivity and scale up sourcing, including facilitating the development of berry farming and the tourism agri-linkages exchange (ALEX) initiative, which has facilitated contracts valued at over $237 m.