The main objective of this Economic andSector Work (ESW) is to identify opportunities for strongerlinkages between domestic agricultural supply chains and thetourism sector in the OECS, and to outline priorityinterventions with potential to strengthen these linkages.Since this topic has been analyzed in a number of studies,the approach for this ESW is not to conduct yet anothercomprehensive study. Instead, the goal is to validate andbuild on previous work through detailed field interviewswith a selected sample of ‘game changers in the private andpublic sectors, and to come up with priority areas of focusand investments. The continued focus on strengthening theagriculture-tourism linkages is appropriate given theunexploited possibilities for increasing the share oflocally sourced food purchased by the tourism sector andreducing the growing food import bill. The studies alsoidentified specific types of food with potential to satisfydemand from the tourism sector. Both studies caution,however, that the potential for local production to replaceimports is limited, given the regions agro-climaticconditions and price competitiveness. The World Bank, FAOstudy estimated that the scope to substitute tourism importdemand by local produce is limited to around 11 percent ofhotel food imports, equivalent to approximately 2 percent ofthe total food import bill. The study estimated that theannual ‘leakage of the tourism sector in fresh productscould be reduced by about US$10 million, arguing that localand regional markets have greater potential to lower thefood import bill.
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