2 weeks Ago
Although the country is not in immediate danger of food shortages, that could change unless the Government takes effective action soon. As revealed in our lead story in yesterday’s Sunday Express, several food importers have been unable to get foreign exchange from the Export Import Bank of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (EximBank) for the past two months. Foreign suppliers are now owed millions in US dollars for basic food items ranging from potatoes, rice, onions, garlic, oil, sugar, saltfish, smoke herring, pigtail, peas, and beans.
If these bills aren’t paid soon, supplies will be cut off. That will either raise the prices of these staples, or lead to scarcity, or both. According to the Central Bank’s Economic Bulletin of July 2024, forex sales between January to July totalled just under US$3.
4 billion. Finance Minister Colm Imbert in his September 30 budget statement stated that the country’s food import bill was $7.2 billion (approximately US$1.
07 billion) in 2023. That’s about 17% of forex sales for the year. The businesspersons who spoke with the Sunday Express said the EximBank is waiting on the Finance Ministry to release funds but previous arrangements have not been renewed.
In a post yesterday on the social media platform X, Finance Minister Colm Imbert, in response to our report, wrote: “During Covid, we created a special window at the Eximbank to provide USD for essential imports such as food and medicine. Covid is over so we are reviewing the feasibility of that forex window. The need for a review cannot be too difficult a concept for the Express to grasp.
” In fact, we do have some difficulty. Perhaps Minister Imbert would be kind enough to enlighten us and the public. First, we find it hard to understand why the Government is only now reviewing the EximBank’s forex window.
After all, it is already more than three years since the country’s borders were reopened (July 17, 2021); 32 months since Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley told the Parliament that T&T was entering the endemic phase of the Covid-19 virus (March 4, 2022); and over a year-and-a-half since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the pandemic over (May 9, 2023). Second, we cannot comprehend why food is no longer essential enough for the EximBank’s facility. After all, Minister Imbert in his budget statement 29 days ago said the purpose of the Forex window was “to ensure a steady supply of essential items into the country” and boasted that “This facility has mitigated the significant risk of national shortages of basic items.
” Has that “significant risk” become insignificant in the past four weeks? The food importers don’t think so. On the contrary, they believe the risk is already high. We hope Minister Imbert will reassure the national community by explaining, in terms everybody can grasp, exactly what the Government is doing to ensure food scarcity does not become a reality.
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