Suriname to host next Caribbean Week of Agriculture

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:00 by GxMedia

GEORGETOWN – Suriname has offered to host the 13^th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) officials at the just concluded 12^th edition of the event disclosed Friday evening at the end of the 45^th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) here in Georgetown.

“I have put forward that Suriname would be proud to host the next Caribbean Week of Agriculture. I will discuss this further at home with the government to take a final decision”, said deputy-minister of Agriculture, Abigail Lie A Kwie, Suriname’s representative at the COTED-meeting in an interview. Just minutes later at a closing press conference at the Guyana International Conference Center the official announcement came that “tentatively” Suriname will be the venue of the next event.

“If the Head of Government give the go ahead we have to start very early with the preparations, because staging the event will be an enormous task”, said the Surinamese official. “There is so much that has to be in place like logistics and so on”, she added. Suriname however is no stranger to hosting regional mega-events. In 2003 the country successfully organized the Caribbean Festival of Arts and Culture and even performed better last August in staging the region’s premier cultural event for the second time in 10 years.

In 2002 Suriname was to hold the 4^th Caribbean Week of Agriculture but eventually the exercise was abandoned and in 2003 Guyana organized the 4^th edition of the regional agricultural event.

The Caribbean Week of Agriculture is used to analyse the status of agriculture ahd the regional thrust towards food security. Focus is also placed on marketing, sanitary, phytosanitary matters and general policy and administrative matters.