POLICY POINTERS Case studies highlight characteristics of value-chain development in the Caribbean and Pacific The Caribbean and the Pacific regions have much in common. All the nations in the Pacific are island nations with relatively small populations, as are most of the nations in the Caribbean. Both regions have sought to promote intra-regional agricultural trade, but with limited success. Both are increasingly dependent on food imports, in some cases with negative impacts on nutrition. Both have witnessed sizable emigration and, as a consequence, have large diasporas that offer potential markets for products from the islands. At the same time, they encounter significant sanitary, phytosanitary and logistical problems when trying to supply those diasporas and other extra-regional markets.
KEY POINTS • Monitor and promote awareness of developments that may increase or reduce demand on domestic or export markets. • Develop and implement regional trading arrangements. • Build trust by creating mechanisms for two-way exchange of information between value-chain actors and policy-makers. • Promote dialogue and learning between farmers and buyers to create market linkages and encourage more downstream participation of famers in the value chain. Provide incentives for other stakeholders to contribute to this process through capacity development. • Provide infrastructure to support value chains, including roads for intraisland transport, ports for inter-island transport and market hubs, including storage facilities to help reduce postharvest losses. • Create an enabling environment that facilitates doing business. • Formulate and implement policies that encourage local processing to generate jobs and capture a larger share of the final price of products.