Strengthening links between SIDS

A platform that promotes stronger linkages between chefs and small-scale producers in Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean countries was launched in the Caribbean. Chefs for Development aims to stimulate demand of local agrifood products in the domestic and hospitality sector, improving public health and reducing unsustainable food import bills in island countries. The platform was unveiled in the Cayman Islands, where the Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2016 opened last Wednesday. Chefs for Development (Chefs4Dev) is an online community which uses chefs' role as ambassadors of local cuisine and teams them up with smallholder farmers and agro-processors who can supply quality products. The aim is to increase revenues for smallholder producers and promote healthier, locally sourced agrifood products to households, hotels and restaurants in regions suffering from soaring food imports and high levels of diet related diseases. Tourism is a major source of income for the island states of all three regions, yet most visitors and domestic consumers are served food shipped in from other countries and cultures, much of it high in calories, sugar and salt. In the Caribbean, up to 80 per cent of the food consumed is imported. As a result, the region has some of the world's highest levels of non-communicable diseases and obesity rates. Eight out of 10 countries with the world's worst rates of obesity are in the Pacific Islands.

Full Article: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=376798