THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES

1. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES A Presentation By: The Co-operative Credit Union League of T & T. To: The People of Trinidad and Tobago

2. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Background The Co-operative Credit Union League of Trinidad and Tobago is the Umbrella Organization for financial Co-operatives. Our, over seventy constituent units are scattered all across the nation with a conservative estimated membership in excess of 400,000.

3. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Background These 400,000 plus members have accumulated $4B in assets. Given the average size of a household, it would be fair to assume that we touch the lives of every citizen in our country.

4. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Credit Unions operate within a framework of principles that emphasize: • Education, Training and Information. • Co-operation among Co-operatives. • Voluntary and Open Membership and Services. • Concern for Community. • Democratic Member Control.

5. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Food Prices …Impact Analysis Today’s food prices are consuming a growing proportion of funds available to households to meet their day-to-day requirements. This circumstance is not unique in Trinidad and Tobago as food prices worldwide are increasing for a variety of reasons, which include:

6. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Food Prices … Impact Analysis • Population Increases. • The growing demand for goods and services in newly industrializing countries such as China, India and Russia. • Conversion of traditional food resources to meet energy demands.

7. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Given that the above factors may only worsen in the foreseeable future, rising food prices would be a fact of life. In the local context, food prices cannot be isolated from importation and production issues.

8. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES In fact, there is a close correlation between production and the rising food prices as the massive food importation bill is due in large part to the low levels of output in many agricultural sub sectors. We see some of the factors contributing to increases in food prices locally as issues relating to the following:

9. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Production Issues • Poor Infrastructure • Transportation • Supplier/Importer Cartels • Security and Protection for Produce/Praedial Larceny • Insurance

10. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Production Issues • Lack of appropriate policing of Government’s measures to reduce food cost inflation. • Guaranteed Markets. • Incentives for farming as a career choice.

11. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Importation Issues • Imported Inflation. • Consumption and eating habits conditioned by foreign tastes and appetites. • Open Market Regime. • Dumping.

12. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Other Issues • Increasing Agricultural Exports.

13. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Impacts The Phenomenon of rising food prices affects both the credit union and the credit union member.

14. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Credit Union Impacts: • Greater demands for loans for routine domestic purposes. • Curtailing of credit union funds available for productive investment. • Pressure for credit union to widen and expand the services offered.

15. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Member Impacts • Shrinking disposable income as a result of increasing food prices. • Additional challenges in dealing with medical, education, saving and other critical imperatives.

16. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Member Impacts • Temptation to over-expose themselves to credit. • Potential for reduction in their standard of living. • Family conflicts.

17. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Proposals to Address High Food Prices and the Impact on Members Short-term Strategies: • A sympathetic operating regime for credit unions to allow them to meet the organizational and member challenges posed by the above impacts.

18. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Short-term Strategies • Greater use by the Government of the credit union system to discharge its social and poverty reduction programmes. • Concessionary funding for credit union agricultural and food production initiatives.

19. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Short-term Strategies • Relate agricultural goods available for exportto local needs. • Revolutionize farming with an aggressive policy that provides adequate incentives for farmers and guaranteed markets. • Rehabilitation of non-productive agricultural estates, using available labour, perhaps CEPEP.

20. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Short-term Strategies • Formal encouragement and reward for home agricultural production (surplus home production to be covered by guaranteed markets). • Campaigns and incentives intended to reorient local tastes to local foods.

21. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Short-term Strategies • More vigorous attention to anti dumping protection. • Assign dedicated resources, legal and otherwise to deal with farmers security issues. • Establish appropriate risk alleviation machinery, including farmers insurance.

22. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Short-term Strategies • Immediate programmes to provide and rehabilitate physical agricultural infrastructure networks.

23. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES Long-term Strategies • Reintroduce agricultural programmes at the Primary and Secondary School levels with competition as an inherent part of the project. • Re-invigorate the Agricultural Youth Camp System. • Strengthen programmes and initiatives for agricultural land distribution.

24. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES CONCLUSION The restricting of spiraling food cost inflation requires a mix of simple, but innovative policy adjustments and the will to implement.

25. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES CONCLUSION These measures outlined above, while not exhaustive, could provide the basis for arresting in relatively short order, the negative impacts which could be occasioned by ineffective attention to current causative conditions.

26. THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD PRICES THANK YOU