National Authorizing Officer Eddie Lambert has confirmed that the European Union has approved a 200 million euro fund to help Dominica and other African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries cope with a new banana agreement.
The EU, under the new deal, has cut tariffs on bananas from Latin America making competition much stiffer on the global market.
However the EU said it is increasing assistance to its ACP trading partners by providing $200 million euro for the period 2010 to 2014.
Dominica does not know as yet how much of the money it will get from the EU, but whatever the island receives will be in the form of budgetary support, according to Lambert.
“We have no official information from the delegation in Barbados on the amount that has been allocated to Dominica,” Lambert pointed out. “All the information we have is that an official note from the head of delegation that is was approved by the European Parliament.”
Meanwhile a national adaptation strategy has been composed to help Dominica better deal with the changes that will come as a result of the new banana deal.
We should take the money to diversify our economy. Forget that banana bull. Europeans and Americans continue to judge bananas from the outside only. They will pass up a sweet juicy banana from Dominica because of the brown dotted specks ,(tacktay), on the skin, for a hard, sticky, tasteless and chemical tainted banana from Central and South America.
Furthermore, our former colonial masters pay us about an Eastern Caribbean dime (EC$0.10) per pound of banana which they retail for about EC$1.27 (US$0.49). We are also obligated to purchase their fertilizer, weedicide, pesticide, packaging materials, tools and machinery (forks, cutlasses, hoes, sprayers, tractors, trucks etc.). We must process our own food anc cut off the middle man For example: they purchase our cocoa beans at dirt-cheap prices and sell us expensive chocolate bars and cookiesThe same can be said about our ginger and grapefruits.
I hope farmers are preparing themselves and making their products quality to the highest. Good quality we need to stress on that. Dominicans do nnot understand service and I think training courses on good service and high quality should be implemented too. They don’t understand that countries buyin products thrive on good quality for what they paying for. That no every country operates in the take it or leave it attitude we have. So we need to educate business people, not just farmers about the value of service and quality. Them give them the money to make it work. And I hope we start now
Continue the Gateway Project. The amount of training and support (even if it was Technical Assistance) was just priceless. Wish a few others to benefit from it too and if you have more give me some (but not Technical Assistance again – Cash/Machinery).