The French Minister of Overseas Territories, Sébastien Lecornu, and the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Julien Denormandie convened yesterday the first national committee for the agricultural transformation of the overseas territories. This committee, whose creation was announced by the President of the French Republic during his visit to Reunion Island on October 25, 2019, aims to launch a new agricultural policy with all stakeholders adapted to local specificities with the goal of striving to achieve food autonomy for overseas departments by 2030, while continuing to develop innovative and high-quality export sectors that take into account market changes. This approach will integrate the expectations of our fellow citizens who want quality products, from short circuits with high environmental and social performance.

This committee brought together the State and its operators, parliamentarians, overseas communities, in particular community fund management authorities, as well as all representatives of the agricultural world. The measures of the agricultural component of the recovery plan, a tool to support the implementation of agricultural transformation, and its possible variations abroad were presented. With a bottom-up approach, the ministers announced that the agricultural transformation committees will meet in each of the affected overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Reunion and Mayotte) under the aegis of the prefects. At the same time, general inspection missions were carried out to support the procedures initiated. The conclusions of this work are expected in mid-2021 and will be presented to the next national committee.