On May 4, during a working visit to Suriname’s agricultural trade fair, Barbados’ Minister of Agriculture, Food and Food Security Shantal Munro-Knight has expressed high praise for the event and highlighted promising opportunities for bilateral collaboration and Surinamese agro-product exports to the Caribbean nation.
Leading a government delegation that held working discussions with Suriname’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Mike Noersalim, Munro-Knight said she was deeply impressed by the scale of processing development that Suriname has achieved for its local agricultural products. She specifically called out the country’s broad, sustained investment in agro-processing as a standout strength, with one locally developed innovation drawing particular attention: a homegrown hydroponic indoor farming system. Unlike most similar systems that are currently operated exclusively by large corporate entities, Munro-Knight noted that this model has clear potential for community-level adoption across Barbados, calling the innovation “very impressive”.
Beyond the hydroponic system, the minister highlighted two other Surinamese agricultural sectors that stood out during her tour: cassava processing and specialty product development. While Barbados also grows cassava, Munro-Knight emphasized that Suriname has reached a far more advanced level of processing that turns the root crop into a wide range of finished consumer products, a development that Barbados can learn from. She also pointed to noni, a tropical medicinal fruit, as a product with strong untapped export potential for Suriname in the Barbadian market. She even sampled a locally produced yoghurt during the fair, describing the artisanal product as “wonderfully produced”.
Overall, Munro-Knight concluded that Suriname’s approach to agricultural manufacturing is innovative and uniquely positioned to meet Barbados’ market demand, creating clear pathways for increased exports of Surinamese agro-goods to the Caribbean island.
Looking ahead to the rest of her visit, the Barbadian minister said her delegation will prioritize forging concrete, output-focused partnerships between the two countries, with knowledge-sharing positioned as a core priority for collaboration. She noted that both nations stand to gain from mutual learning, and ongoing discussions will work to identify additional areas of aligned interest, with regional food security flagged as a top cross-border priority.
For his part, Suriname’s Mike Noersalim echoed the optimistic outlook, reflecting on the successful conclusion of the three-day agricultural fair that wrapped up on Sunday evening. Noersalim said the event achieved its core goal of strengthening connections across Suriname’s domestic agricultural sector while drawing meaningful international attention to the quality and diversity of Surinamese agricultural products. The fair also laid critical groundwork for future private-sector collaboration between Surinamese and international agribusinesses. “The goal of facilitating connections between all actors across the agricultural sector has without a doubt been achieved,” Noersalim said.