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With international funding to develop and implement biosafety regulatory systems drying up in 2019, Caribbean biosafety regulatory efforts remain in idle mode. The region is seeking further funding from the United Nations Environmental Program/Global...

The resumption of travel amid a waning COVID-19 pandemic is breathing much-needed fresh air into the Caribbean Hotel Restaurant Institutional (HRI) food service sector. Yet in 2021 sector sales still fell short of pre-pandemic levels.

The Caribbean retail grocery sector continued on the upswing in 2021. The region increased its imports of consumer-oriented agricultural products by 14 percent in 2021, reaching an estimated $2.45 billion. The outlook calls for moderate growth as the region continues on the path to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and markets such as Guyana and Turks and Caicos Islands emerge as larger players in the regional context.

Zimbabwe’s corn crop for marketing year (MY) 2022/23 is estimated at 1.6 million metric tons (MMT), representing a drop of 43 percent from the bumper crop of 2.7 MMT produced in MY 2021/22. Many factors contributed to the drop in production including sub-optimal weather conditions, high input costs and macro-economic challenges.

Post forecasts that sugar cane production in Zimbabwe will increase by 4 percent to 3.7 million metric tons (MT) in the 2022/23 marketing year (MY), based on normal weather conditions, availability of sufficient irrigation water, and an increase in area planted.

This is the first Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards (FAIRS) Country Report for Zimbabwe. The report includes an assessment of laws and import requirements for food and agricultural products.

Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic (both in terms of public health and economic performance), the tourism-dependent Caribbean is anxiously awaiting a return to more normal times characterized by growing tourist arrivals, which in many ways are the economic lifeblood of the region.