Guyana and Grenada hoping for TT to lift ban on honey imports soon

Guyana and Grenada are confident that Trinidad and Tobago will take the necessary steps to remove the existing barriers to the importation of honey into the Twin Island Republic following CARICOM’s Heads of Government Meeting next month

Trinidad’s Food and Drug Act of 1960 and Beekeeping and Bee products Act of 1935 prohibit the importation of honey into the island. But for CARICOM countries such as Guyana and Grenada, the legislation conflicts with the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC).

The issue has long engaged the attention of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) but President Irfaan Ali, is optimistic that there will be a change soon.

“This is the challenge of being in the region, you can’t give up. We have to have hope that it will change. I think there is a mood now, my own opinion, is that there is a mood in the region now to have these trade barriers and these challenges address, and I am very confident that that mood could bring us result,” President Ali said.

At the time, he was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a high-level regional Agriculture Ministerial meeting held in Georgetown on Tuesday.

President Ali said the issue regarding the barrier to the importation of honey into Trinidad and Tobago has been raised at the level of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and there is a commitment by Trinidad’s Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley that it will be addressed.

“It is an outdated law. I can’t pronounce on that system but I know that it is an item on the CARICOM agenda but not only Guyana but Grenada also,” President Ali said.

Grenada Minister of State, Agriculture and Lands, Adrian Thomas expressed similar optimism, telling reporters the Grenada and Trinidad are currently locked in negotiation.

“The sector has been growing in Grenada and we have top quality honey and we just won a prize in England for having the best honey in the Caribbean. There is a demand for it in the Trinidad market and we have been kept out of that market. So, we are negotiating and we are talking with Trinidad,” Minister Thomas said.

The Grenadian Minister anticipates that following the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting next month, there will be some solution.

The Forty-Fifth Regular Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government will be held in Trinidad and Tobago from July 3 – 5, 2023, under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit.