“The future of food isn’t in distant fields or corporate warehouses—it’s in every home, every garden, and every community that takes control of its own food security.” Mike Smart
The Eastern Caribbean food import bill rises exponentially each year. According to figures coming out of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), the 2023 report suggested that some $2.33 billion on food imports which, by 2024, had climbed to $2.39 billion.
The US Food and Agriculture Service (FAS) Caribbean Basin Agricultural Trade Office in Miami reported in 2025 that “US processed food exports to the Caribbean reached USD 2 billion in 2024, a record high and the first time that threshold has been crossed. Total consumer-oriented agricultural product imports to the region reached USD 3 billion in 2023, with the United States capturing 49% of market share. The broader retail food sector across the Caribbean was valued at USD 10.2 billion in 2024 by Euromonitor International, with a forecast of USD 14.2 billion by 2029 driven by a projected 30.3% growth rate over five years.”
The data on St. Lucia was equally unflattering. Saint Lucia spent an estimated $564 million in 2024, up from $544 million from the previous year. In the region, Dominica was one of the only territories to seriously dent its food import bill during that period.
Unfortunately, these figures mean so little to the populace and may not have resonated as it should over the last two decades. Possibly our leaders have not done a good enough job at explaining, translating or impressing on the population, the actual importance of these figures and how it impacts our very existence.
And so here we are. We are at a point where many are suggesting that our way of life is on the brink of being obliterated, or at least on the verge of being slowly dismantled. At any rate, the message is that we are in trouble.
Is it too late to mount a meaningful recovery? Absolutely not.
We addressed this very issue a few weeks ago, after desperate appeals from the current administrations’ agriculture minister, who was echoing the many calls from the islands’ prime minister, for St. Lucians to actively get involved in the business of ‘growing what we eat and eating what we grow,’ and to engage in the concept of kitchen farming. The Ministry of Agriculture has also encouraged greater participation in farming through the strengthening of the skills of local producers, particularly among young people, as part of efforts to improve food security and keep more money within the local economy.
Whether those calls fell on deaf ears or not remains to be seen.
The rising food import bill has also been brought into sharper focus and further compounded by the disruptions in shipping lines and the astronomical increase in the global cost of fuel, something unfortunately we have virtually no control of.
What we do have control of is how we address this situation. What we do have control of is how soon we attack this growing dilemma. We also have control of what we decide to eat, and more importantly what we decide to grow locally.
The Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) is considerably ambitious in its goal to see the reduction the total ECCU Food Import Bill to EC$1.4 billion by 2030. The figure is an approximate $1 billion drop from what the estimates are currently. While that is not impossible, the region must make the hard decisions now if it is even to come close to that goal. Decisiveness is the key, from both regional governments and peoples.
From the St. Lucian perspective, what started out as a slogan that was laughed off the table, is now what needs to fuel our fight for food security and ultimately our survival.
It has become painfully obvious that our bid for adequate food security is not vested in lands afar but rests on the shoulders of our hard-working farmers and those who are willing to engage in this regional battle.
Apparently, this is our war.