Dasheen farmers here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are being advised not to sell their produce anything less than one dollar per pound.
This advice came from Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar who cited marketing intelligence, who said that the Trinidad and Tobago market would not be able offer farmers a price that would cover their cost of production.
However Minister Caesar noted that that his ministry has secured an arrangement with two marketers in the United States of America that would be able to pay local farmers the appropriate prices.
“From the marketing intelligence that we have, the market in Trinidad and Tobago currently bare the high prices that we got earlier this year, but the ministry has worked out an arrangement with two marketers in the United States of America whereby farmers are asked, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines who have dasheen, not to sell their dasheen for anything below one dollar per pound. Because what you’re going to have happening, and what we are advising, is that during the morning where you have high production of dasheen in Trinidad and Tobago, we’re advising our traffickers not to take dasheen to Trinidad and Tobago in those months, because they would not be able to give the farmers a price where they can cover the cost of production,” Minister Caesar said.
Minister Caesar repeated his call for farmers in SVG not to sell their dasheen for any price lower than one dollar per pound, noting that markets such as the United Kingdom is doing well, with farmers being able to get their produce sold at $2.10 per pound just this week.