Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar says that the reduction in the
\nexport of bananas from neighboring St Lucia following the passage of
\nTropical Storm Kirk can create opportunities for Vincentian farmers.
\nThe agriculture minister made the comment as he responded to questions
\nof banana shipment to the UK and projection for the first half of 2019
\nposed by the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in parliament last
\nThursday.
\nCaesar said that on the issue of shipment to UK the main focus has been
\nto explore fully the regional market and to secure greater market
\nshare in the region.
\n“We have never closed the door on the UK market. And this is clear
\nfrom our continued support in actively engaging farmers and farmers
\norganizations in pursuing the certification necessary for extra-regional trade in bananas. And we’ll continue to assist,” he said.
\nThe agricultural minister said that with a decline of approximately 40
\npercent in banana exports to the extra-regional markets from St Lucia
\nfollowing the passage of Tropical Storm Kirk, the marketing company
\nWinfresh has been contacted to assess the situation of supply and
\ndemand from the Windward Islands. He said that St Lucia’s decline
\ncould create opportunities for St Vincent and the Grenadines and they
\nare awaiting a response from Winfresh.
\n“At the same time, Mr. Speaker, the reduction in St Lucia’s ability to
\nsupply to the regional market because of Tropical Storm Kirk, has also
\nopened another opportunity for us to increase our exports to the
\nregional market. In fact, farmers have noted that traders who trade on
\nthe Barbados market for bananas, since Tropical Storm Kirk in St
\nLucia, that they are seeing greater take up to that market,” Caesar
\nsaid.
\nOn the matter of projections for the period January 2019 to June 2019,
\nminister Caesar said that “based on the trend for the past two years,
\nit is between 1,000 – 1,500 tonnes.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar says that the reduction in the export of bananas from neighboring St Lucia following the passage of Tropical Storm Kirk can create opportunities for Vincentian farmers. The agriculture minister made the comment as he responded to questions of banana shipment to the UK and projection for the first half of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n