The Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries has launched a Co­coa and Cof­fee Steer­ing Com­mit­tee to guide de­vel­op­ment of the sec­tors.

The launch took place on April 21 at the Rio Claro Demon­stra­tion Sta­tion.

Ravi Rati­ram, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries, said the com­mit­tee will co­or­di­nate agen­cies, re­search bod­ies, fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions and in­dus­try stake­hold­ers.

He said the move is in­tend­ed to ad­dress gaps in co­or­di­na­tion and sup­port im­ple­men­ta­tion of ini­tia­tives across the co­coa and cof­fee val­ue chains.

Rati­ram said the plan sup­ports ef­forts to ex­pand agri­cul­ture’s role in eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty, rur­al ac­tiv­i­ty and for­eign ex­change earn­ings.

He said fo­cus ar­eas in­clude farm re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, agro­nom­ic prac­tices, post-har­vest sys­tems, pro­cess­ing, mar­ket ac­cess, brand­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and trace­abil­i­ty.

The com­mit­tee will al­so over­see a sec­tor ac­tion plan with time­lines, in­di­ca­tors and as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

Nicholas Mor­ris, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ma­yaro, at­tend­ed the launch.

Al­so present were Dr. Michelle Mel­lowes, Chief Tech­ni­cal Of­fi­cer, Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries, and Pro­fes­sor Path­manathan Uma­ha­ran of the Co­coa Re­search Cen­tre.

The Min­istry said the ini­tia­tive al­so tar­gets ex­port mar­kets for co­coa and cof­fee.

It said Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion in the fine flavour co­coa cat­e­go­ry will sup­port mar­ket ac­cess through part­ner­ships and in­vest­ment.

The Min­istry said it will con­tin­ue en­gage­ment with stake­hold­ers on im­ple­men­ta­tion.