General Manager of the Dominica Export Import Agency (DEXIA), Gregoire Thomas has said that getting enough agricultural products for export is a challenge for the company.
Speaking at a handing over ceremony of Stackable Field Crates to farmers last Friday, he said there is a need for deeper collaboration with agriculture to get more products for export.
“We would like to see deeper collaboration with agriculture so that we can get more of the produce available for export,” he said. “As we speak we still have a challenge getting sufficient volumes of produce.”
Thomas continued, “Not too long ago we were at Portsmouth and the exporters were telling us they cannot find sufficient produce for export.”
“We ourselves we have a challenge because we have notices on the radio and this morning I think I also saw notices by at least one supermarket saying that they are looking for produce,” he added.
Thomas revealed that DEXIA has processes and exported in excess of $450,000 worth of produce, “and there is a potential to double that.”
“We can do much more than what we are doing presently,” he stated.
He said over the past two years or more, DEXIA has encouraged the production of dasheen, hot peppers and plantains and is a model that the company need to emulate in the other sectors for the other crops.
“Because for one thing, we have not had much of a challenge in terms of supply of dasheen, because what we have done, we have done it consistently by establishing at least eight acres of dasheen every month,” he explained. “So by the time harvest time comes we know where we can source our dasheen for exports.”
He said that is what the company would like to see for other crops.
Thomas mentioned also that the donation of Field Crates will all complement what the company wants to do in terms of the post-harvest infrastructure.
Dexia is only an import agency, stop pretending. Half of these people sitting in the office should go plant some dasheen.
Dasheen you say!! Ha ha ha. So many contracts signedwith DEXIA and farmers dasheen rotting in the field..!! STUPES…All you killing agriculture…..
Most of it rots on the trees because it isn’t picked on time and then there are no hucksters to come get it. And then there is the problem of herbicides and pesticides that are widely used on crops.
I was under the impression that we were doing so well in agriculture. All we have to is to back to what’s work. It is not rocket science. Too many young people are begging on the streets of Roseau and the countryside. Tech then how to fish Mr. Agriculture Minister give them land and other incentives.
Most of these young people have no interest in farming. They have the attitude of entitlement. Farming is hard work and they prefer to play with their electronics (which is the way the educational system is set up now), so the possibilities of finding employment of their liking is scarce.
No mention of the ministry of agriculture eh.
All of the blame seems to be targeting the farmers.
Greg you are so right but you should know that one of the major reasons for this is that the government is using the phrase “assisting farmers ” when they meant paying our supporters for their votes. We are seeing people receiving large sums of cash in the name of farm rehabilitation when the distributors know well that these people are not farmers. The struggling farmers who needs the cash do not recieve it because they are not supporters of the party. Do you expect things to improve? Hell no!!!
I have a problem right there. How can you get sufficient produce for outside when you all keep playing Cat and Mouse games with farmers. Recently my brother had to give away his sweat for nothing in the market because DEXIA asked them to supply dasheen when they came DEXIA did not take it sighting the dasheen was too big for export. Weeks before another friend had to dump a van load that DEXIA again did not take because they had taken all their bee-za-well own instead of the farmers which they had verbal contracts with. DEXIA in my opinion is a waste of time.
DEXIA is a non-performing agency. It should be disbanded.
so why are farmers crying there is no market?
This is not new,this is why I have proposed working with the larger land owners in the island,eg the Armour’s, Douglass’s etc to get large sustainable volumes of designated crops for maintaining market share.Our agricultural extension workers spend a lot of time servicing micro land owners,who can’t provide a lot of volume and who are very price sensitive.They will abandon contractual agreements if a slightly higher price is offered.The larger land owners will have enough volume to satisfy more market niches and so Decision will be able to get more guaranteed quantities to sell to buyers.This is how the banana industry developed,the large estates, including Geest supplying the bulk of fruit to make it guaranteed,then the smaller farmers tagged along
SOME BODY IS FINALLY WRITING SOME SENSE.
As a young man growing up in Dominica..I knew agriculture was going to die.The farmers of before never tough their children about agriculture an the crops, instead they send them an study doctor, lawyer, etc.now they want the young men of tarish pit an Guttar to do faming.i mean the government have to play but come where de Young ppl getting the fams from..
You all keep refusing dasheen farmers amongst other farmers all the time. WHY??
PLEASE READ jonathan st jean COMMENT IT MAKES 500% SENSE.
I thought they said agriculture is doing well hmmmm.
Agriculture is the most important industry. The more we produce the less we import. We should aim not only to be self-sufficient but to produce surpluses for export. If the right structures are put in place, this can be achieved. Farmers need to be subsidized with fencing, fertilizers, seeds and seedlings, equipment and tools. The more self-sufficient we become the more prosperous the country. Let’s all support and recognize our dedicated farmers.
Ibo Franco, are you out of your mind??? Then you a self will say they Government is giving HANDOUT, and teach a man to fish ….
Farming is a business and like every other business you must invest in your capital, manage it properly to reap your benefits and always remember as a business it carries a level of RISK!!!!!!! That creates an opportunity for an Insurance company!!!
Joe, many farmers do not have the start-up capital to ply their trade, especially, on a large scale. What’s wrong if government assists these genuine potential farmers, initially, with grants or subsidies until they can stand on their own feet? The money circulates in the country and helps to boost the local economy. The government gives Foreign Investors all sort of duty-free concessions and ‘sweet heart deals’ and no objections from people like you. Most of the profits from these foreign investors are ‘extradited ‘ to their country of origin. So you have a problem with a poor farmer from Cochrane getting some seeds, fertilizer and fencing wire at a reduced cost. But it’s alright for a foreign hotelier to get massive duty concessions from the local government. Stand up for your own people. Let them get piece of the pie.
Ibo, if you have to subsidise all the time you are peepeeing against the wind. Where do you think the subsidy is coming from if not from taxpayers’s money? s taxing people one way to hand it out free to others so they can make a profit? No man, I’m not in that. If you can not run a business without subsidy you should not be in that business.
PLEASE READ jonathan st jean COMMENT .
No surprise..The DLP gang has destroyed all the productive sectors of the economy..””Beg me and vote for me. “WICKED RULERS””!
There appears to be a market for produce. The people need to grow the stuff to sell. What’s that got to do with the government if they are not willing to work the land?
Well my friend there are many farmers who are VERY WILLING to work the land, but they are being discouraged by this evil, administration…Can you remember the amount of misery, this administration put the SALISBURY people under, because they were asking for FEEDER ROADS to access their farms? The same thing exists in Marigot, Wesley,Woodfordhill, etc…That’s why to call what exists in Dominica a government is a misnomer…It’s a GANG…..A gang of accomplish idiots! The biggest idiot is the Punjab doctor, the one who has Dominica’s name in all garbage bins all around the world.
SKERRIT MUST GO!!!!!! SKERRIT MUST GO!!!! SKERRIT MUST GO!!!!
So how is Drigo going to fill these crates then?
With all the BS he’s been talking about
How is it Drigo to fill the crates??? You people cannot see beyond POLITICS???
So he is going to fill them with politics Joe? Filling those crates does not depend on what colour you vote my boy. I’m sorry but you are talking nonsense.