Linking Agriculture and Tourism through Policy Setting
Organised by IICA, the Government of Vanuatu and CTA
St. Michael, Barbados
3-4 November 2015
High quality food, every day of the year, is essential to hotels, lodges and resorts. Often the food purchasing bill of a tourism site is large in the context of the local economy, but surprisingly little is spent locally, even when supplies are available from farmers, fishermen and small-scale agribusinesses. The challenges of shifting food-sourcing to local suppliers are considerable, yet if it can be done in a way that meets commercial needs and customer preferences. This is one way in which tourism operations can significantly increase their contribution to local economic development.
The 1st Agribusiness Forum in Fiji organised by PIPSO, CTA and SPC in July 2015 highlighted successes in strengthening links between agriculture and tourism industries in the Pacific region. A major challenge identified was the lack of favourable policies in place to encourage linkages between agriculture, tourism and trade policies and the need to design and develop Agritourism policies which would facilitate linkages between agriculture and tourism at national and regional levels.
The Forum recommended that the first pilot be launched in Vanuatu with two immediate actions: (i) a selected group of stakeholders involved in the development of the policy will visit the Caribbean where policies are in place and meet their Caribbean counterparts and learn from the process; (ii) a policy workshop will be held in Vanuatu in 2015 for the launch of the policy design process.
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Photos
Highlights
Biodata of the speakers
Resources & Glossary
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Programme
Chair: Ena Harvey, Agritourism expert and IICA representative in Barbados
Opening Remarks & Introduction: H.E. Roy Mickey Joy, Vanuatu Ambassador to the EU ; Dr. Victor Villalobos, IICA Director General (tbc) ; Michael Hailu, Director of CTA
Plenary sessions
Chair: Gregg Rawlins, IICA Representative Trinidad and Tobago
– Presentation on the Regional Agrotourism Policy and Strategy for the Caribbean (policy design, consultation process, implementation)
Ena Harvey, Agritourism expert and IICA representative in Barbados
– Policy efforts in linking agriculture to trade and tourism
Howard Aru, Director General of Agriculture of Vanuatu
– Lessons learned and success stories in the Caribbean
- Vincent & the Grenadines – Michael Dalton, IICA Coordinator
- Barbados – Roxanne Waithe, Technical Specialist & Shanise Taylor, BTPA
- Jamaica – Shauna Brandon
- Bahamas – Manuel Messina
– Needs assessment in Vanuatu on agritourism and plans ahead
Adela Aru, Principal Product Development Officer, Ministry of Tourism, Vanuatu
– Discussion (with agency contributions from CTO, FAO, BAS, BHTA, IDB, Ministry of Agriculture).
– Identification of areas for collaboration between the two regions and action plan: Government of Vanuatu, IICA, CTA,
The outcomes will feed the workshop in Vanuatu supporting a consultative process towards the agritourism policy design and implementation. It is foreseen to have preliminary results to share at the 2nd Pacific Agribusiness Forum.
Field visit
– Armag Farms Ltd, Armag Manufacturing Ltd
Processing of various ground provisions, including yam, cassava and sweet potato. French fries made from locally grown sweet potatoes
– Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) – processing of root crops and breadfruit into flour
– Green Monkey Chocolatier – chocolate manufacturer
– Purity Bakery – production of cassava bread
– Gay Rum Tour (November 3rd)
Brussels Development Briefings 