August 6, 2018

Jamaica aims to boost its dairy and livestock production

In an opening speech at the 66th Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show, Jamaica's Minister for Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Audley Shaw,announced the government's intent to implement several strategies to boost its dairy and livestock industry to enable the country to be more self-sufficient in the related areas.

Shaw explained that the strategies, over time, will help to reduce imports and improve the country's beef and goat meat as well as milk production.

Currently, Jamaica is importing as much as 85% of the foods being consumed by locals and tourists. Shaw added, "The situation is unacceptable when we have so much arable land and technology available."

"We are going to have to import embryos and we are going to have to find clean, disease-free cattle to import calves into Jamaica so that we can start to aggressively rebuild the beef industry and the dairy industry," he shared.