Minister of Foreign Affairs, E.P Chet Greene wants Antigua and Barbuda to ‘tap into’ the advances that Turkiye (Turkey) has made in the agricultural sector, noting that the Eastern Europe country is one of the ‘bread-baskets’ of the world.
The minister was speaking on Thursday during a courtesy call by Turkiye’s new Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, Emriye Bağdagül Ormancı, when he made the suggestion.
“If you take the area of agriculture, you are easily one of the world’s leading agricultural producing countries and so we anticipate that through this relationship that we can see further growth in our own agricultural sector as this is one of the areas that we have targeted for growth,” he told the visiting diplomat.
Greene outlined that the government has placed a priority on food security and food sovereignty. “For us, these are not just mere buzz words; they come with a deep and abiding meaning. As we pay attention to the global realities with food chains shortening, logistics issues and the ever increasing prices for food, it is incumbent on us as a people to build capacity with the help of friendly countries such as yours,” he remarked.
He disclosed that the government has publicly made its intentions known with regard to agriculture and the need to upscale this sector to help meet the need for the nation to feed itself and to reduce the reliance on imported food.
“If you take a look at our food importation bill, you would see we import practically everything that we consume as we do not have the land size to do 100 percent food import substitution. We however, have the climatic conditions to grow certain crops and where animal products are concerned we can do quite a bit of substitution there,” he explained.
FA Minister Greene indicated that these are some of the areas for which Antigua and Barbuda would be seeking assistance from Turkiye.
Ambassador Ormanci noted that Turkiye has made a conscious decision to expand its ties with the countries of the region with the opening of new embassies and other diplomatic outposts.
She gave a commitment to work alongside Antigua and Barbuda on matters of mutual interest. She noted that Turkiye has a well-developed agricultural sector and it stands ready to assist Antigua and Barbuda achieve its stated goals in this area.
