Trinidad and Tobago has unveiled a new $1 million agro-processing facility at Brechin Castle, signaling a strategic shift toward value-added agricultural exports.
SHAS-TRI BOODAN A $1 mil-lion agro-pro-cess-ing fa-cil-i-ty aimed at boost-ing Trinidad and To-ba-go’s food in-dus-try was opened on Sat-ur-day at Brechin Cas-tle, Cou-va.. Prime Min-is-ter Kam-la Per-sad-Bisses-sar of-fi-cial-ly opened the Brechin Cas-tle Agro Pro-cess-ing Fa-cil-i-ty and said the project marked a new phase for agri-cul-ture in the coun-try.. She said the for-mer pack-ing house had been con-vert-ed in-to a mod-ern agro-pro-cess-ing fa-cil-i-ty af-ter more than 11 years.. She said the fa-cil-i-ty is equipped with three
au-to-mat-ed stain-less steel pro-cess-ing lines ca-pa-ble of con-vert-ing lo-cal-ly grown root crops, veg-eta-bles and fruits in-to val-ue-added prod-ucts for ex-port mar-kets.. Per-sad-Bisses-sar said the prod-ucts would meet in-ter-na-tion-al food safe-ty and qual-i-ty stan-dards while cre-at-ing greater com-mer-cial val-ue for lo-cal pro-duce.. “This is agri-cul-ture dri-ven not on-ly by cul-ti-va-tion, but al-so by pro-cess-ing, brand-ing, ex-ports and in-no-va-tion,” Per-sad-Bisses-sar said.. She added that the fa-cil-i-ty would strength-en food se-cu-ri-ty, re-duce de-pen-dence on food im-ports and help
cre-ate a more re-silient econ-o-my.. She added that re-cent glob-al dis-rup-tions high-light-ed the im-por-tance of food se-cu-ri-ty and en-cour-aged younger peo-ple to view agri-cul-ture as an in-dus-try with long-term op-por-tu-ni-ties.. Per-sad-Bisses-sar al-so thanked In-di-an Prime Min-is-ter Naren-dra Mo-di and the Gov-ern-ment of In-dia for pro-vid-ing the equip-ment used at the fa-cil-i-ty.. “When we cam-paigned in Cou-va and else-where in Trinidad last year, we promised the peo-ple we would de-liv-er, and we be-gan that de-liv-ery.. Promise
made, promise kept,” she said.. In-dia’s Min-is-ter of Ex-ter-nal Af-fairs Sub-rah-manyam Jais-hankar said the project would help Namde-v-co source agro-com-modi-ties from farm-ers, process and store them, and ex-pand lo-cal and ex-port mar-kets.. He said the ini-tia-tive would help farm-ers se-cure bet-ter prices while con-sumers would ben-e-fit from im-proved prod-ucts.. Jais-hankar al-so point-ed to In-dia’s Farmer Pro-duc-er Or-gan-i-sa-tions (FPOs), which help farm-ers mar-ket pro-duce on a larg-er scale, in-crease in-comes and cre-ate em-ploy-ment op-por-tu-ni-ties for young
peo-ple.. He said In-dia now has about 15,000 FPO prod-ucts avail-able on on-line plat-forms and ex-pressed hope that sim-i-lar ini-tia-tives could ex-pand in Trinidad and To-ba-go.
agro-processing, Trinidad and Tobago, Brechin Castle, food security, agriculture, NAMDEVCO, agricultural innovation