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Caribbean Basin > Aruba + Barbados + Cayman Islands + Curacao + Dominca + Grenada + Guyana + Saint Kitts and Nevis + Saint Vincent and the Grenadines + Saint Lucia + Trinidad and Tobago

Marketing year (MY) 2023/24 area harvested for Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal is expected to remain the same as the previous year at 1.23 million hectares (MHA), as increases in Mali and Senegal were offset by losses in Burkina Faso due to...

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal area harvested for marketing year (MY) 2023/24 is forecast to remain the same as the previous year at 1.23 million hectares (MHA) based on good farm gate prices, governments’ input subsidies, and farmers’ debt cancellation by the Malian and Senegalese governments.

Since December 2022, rainfall across most of Iraq has been positive, expected to result in favorable yields and increased production for winter crops wheat and barley, with rice expected to rebound this summer for marketing year (MY) 2023/24.

With international funding to develop and implement biosafety regulatory systems drying up in 2019, Caribbean biosafety regulatory efforts remain in idle mode. The region is seeking further funding from the United Nations Environmental Program/Global...

On May 17, the Government of Iraq (GOI) announced higher purchase prices for locally-produced wheat in an effort to incentivize farmers to market their crop to the Ministry of Trade. On June 8, the GOI also passed a food security bill that allows the government to use public funds to meet urgent food needs, including issuing tenders to import wheat.

Rice production in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Mali is forecast at 8.02 million metric tons (MMT) in MY 2022/23 on average weather, improved irrigation, and enhanced stability in production areas. The 15 percent jump from MY 2021/22 follows a growing season that was plagued by poor weather, militant activity and instability in Mali, and irrigation issues and pest prevalence in Senegal.

Continued drought and water shortages is affecting economic activities in Iraq, especially grain production in 2022. The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture cut agricultural cropping in irrigated areas to 50 percent less than the previous year due to shortages in surface water.

Biosafety regulatory efforts in the Caribbean remain stalled, and it is yet to be seen whether countries can regain the will and secure the international financing required to fully implement their National Biosafety Frameworks in a harmonized manner.

Eager to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind it, the Caribbean is doing all it can to attract visitors and kick-start its tourism sector in 2021.

Harvested cotton area for marketing year (MY) 2021/22 (August to July) in Mali, Senegal, and Burkina Faso is forecasted to increase 93 percent to 1.43 million hectares from the previous year.

Caribbean imports of consumer-oriented products shrunk from $2.3 billion in 2019 to $2.1 billion in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet Caribbean retail grocery sales grew by an estimated 6 percent during the same period.