Saint Lucia and Cuba have strengthened ties in the field of agriculture.

A team from Saint Lucia’s Ministry of Agriculture upon invitation by the government, visited Cuba to meet with agricultural experts and discuss what assistance could be extended with the aim of improving Saint Lucia’s agriculture and water sectors.

The Cuban government agreed to provide technical assistance to the Government of Saint Lucia prompting the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Cuban Ambassador to Saint Lucia, His Excellency Jorge Francisco Soberon Luis, said agriculture is a priority for both countries.

“In order to continue the paths of development of our countries, we need to strengthen our exchange, our cooperation, our discussions, and our joint efforts in the area of agriculture. Agriculture and everything related to it, we all know both in Cuba and Saint Lucia, it comes with many benefits for our people, for our communities, for achieving countries that are more resilient when it comes to all these phenomena naturally that we have to face. It also strengthens our economies and it’s an important contribution to healthy lifestyles. So we are talking about nutrition, we are talking about food security; we are talking about many things without which we cannot conceive a better life for our countries and our people.”

Minister for Agriculture Ezechiel Joseph noted the importance of such collaborations, and expressed gratitude to the Cuban government for its generosity. He also provided further insight into the MOU.

“We agreed in the MOU that there is need for us to collaborate with Cuba and the whole aspect of crop production. Like we all know we are being challenged right now as it pertains to the utilization of healthier products in the production of our food chain. We just saw recently what happened in the US and we’re all aware what transpired in St. Vincent and the call has been made now even more for us to engage our farmers in the utilization of healthier products as it pertains to the production of food for utilization by all Saint Lucians.”

The two countries expressed eagerness to see the agreement through to implementation.