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Caribbean Food Corporation (CFC) |
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The Caribbean Food Corporation (CFC) was established in 1976 as the chief agency to implement the Regional Food Plan. At its establishment, it had a share capital of TT$33,533. By 1996 its share capital had increased to TT$100m. These shares were held by all the then CARICOM Member States.
Initially, the role of the CFC was to undertake equity investment in non-traditional small and medium scale agricultural enterprises. As such it was not allowed to invest in traditional activities such as those in the sugar and rice industries. It was also required to invest in developmental projects for which governments should have assumed responsibility. Given the nature of some of these activities, there were some failures. Subsequently, CFC’s investment policy was changed to allow a combination of loan and equity investments in traditional as well as non-traditional agricultural activities, as well in as medium to large-scale enterprises.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the changed economic circumstances of our Member States did not allow them to contribute the full amount of their agreed financial allocation for the effective functioning of the Corporation. This notwithstanding, CFC was able to mobilise funds and technical assistance from a number of donors, including the CDB, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the EU, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). These resources enabled the Corporation to establish a private sector managed trading subsidiary – the Caribbean Agricultural Trading Company (CATCO) located in Barbados – as well as to make investments in several public and private sector companies in a number of Member States.
In light of the increased competition faced by the agricultural sector with the greater liberalisation of the market in the 1980s, a number of CFC’s investments proved unprofitable. In addition, the movement away from direct public sector involvement in productive activities reduced the opportunities for further investment by the Corporation. Over time this led to a scaling back of the Corporation’s operations and in 1999 to the absorption of the CFC into the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI, see p. …).
CFC was headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago and was headed by an Executive Director.
Executive Directors of CFC:
Mr R A Fuller (Belize), 1980 -1983
Dr H AD Chesney (Guyana), 1983 -1994
Mr E C Clyde Parris (Trinidad and Tobago), 1994 – 1999
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