The Banana Industry Trust will commission three Inland Reception and Distribution Centers in the communities of Fond Cole, Portsmouth and Marigot today.
The centers, which were funded by the European Commission in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean under its Special Framework of Assistance (SFA), will be used for reception, consolidation and storage of fresh bananas for export as well as for training of farmers and conferences, cold storage, sale and distribution of production inputs and packaging materials, a release from the Government’s press secretary Sean Douglas.
The first commissioning will take place at the $4 million center at 9 a.m. at Fond Cole then will move to the $2 million facility at Portsmouth at 12:30 p.m.
Marigot center will be commissioned at 3 p.m. This structure cost over $1 million.
According to the release, the ceremony will see addresses from the Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, the Minister for Agriculture Matthew Walter, Parliamentary Representative for the Roseau North constituency Julius Timothy, the Head of the European Commission for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Valeriano Diaz among other dignitaries.
Chairman of the Banana Industry Trust Elford Henry, who will also address the ceremony, said that the centers are expected to encourage farmers to make their continued contribution towards the development of agriculture. Henry said that it will be a great day for the agriculture in Dominica.
Farmers are also expected to turn out at today’s events.
i agree that farmers in dominica need more direct help.
Dominica needs to seriously diversify its agricultural sector. i understand revenue from the banana industry has dropped precipitously but we the farming sector in DA has failed to effectively diversify into other areas of production that could be beneficial to the country. There are several reasons for that, obviously, but those factors need to be addressed.
(1) everybody want to get rich fast and seem unwilling to entertain the thought of doing something new;
(2) market availability. People like to say there’s no market, but that is not true; if you produce something unique, you can create a market for it;
(3) expertise in developing, marketing and distributing product. Dominica needs individual(s) skilled at doing business in first world countries. I talk from experience. I personally do have that experience – I am in charge of import operations of a large NYC-based food distribution company with divisions in Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami. In addition to these facilities, we distribute nationally. Our product line includes specialty produce that is sold to premium stores like Whole Foods. However, I am incapable of using my contacts to the benefit of DA because no one in DA produces organic foods.
I could go on and on, but this post will read like a book, so I will stop here. I will only add that over the past 2 years I have tried thru contacts back home to get a few individuals to grasp the concept of doing something new, and the response I get repeatedly is “boyyyy, dat is too much trouble…nobody have time to do dat…you go have to come do dat yourself” – that’s what I hear, and it’s sad because I have the ability to help but I cannot find a willing business partner to do so.
with the decline in production and the number of farmers on the island, it begs the question whether these 3 facilities will be effectively utilised. I believe that as part of this package from the SFA that direct assistance should be given to the farmers to ensure an increase in productivity and output.
the farmers currently do not have much incentive to produce or stay in the industry and am sure that these 3 facilities on their own will not help in this process. will the facility be only used for storage of bananas or will it be able to accommodate non banana produce? i hope the latter of this question applies and training is conducted for farmers in general and not reserved only for banana farmers.