DEXIA signs off on pilot agricultural project with young entrepreneurs 

(Left -right) – Alick Lazare Jr., Paula Platsko, Diamond Kelshall

With a recent contract signing at the Agency’s Bayfront head office, the Dominica Export Import Agency (DEXIA) has cemented a one-year deal with two young entrepreneurs to implement their Ceres Agriculture e-commerce app, which will collect and process data on sales of fresh produce received and processed at DEXIA’s Multi-Purpose Pack Houses (MPPH).  Through this agreement and pilot programme, the use of the app will serve as both a proof of concept and a means of data collection for both parties.

The brainchild of Ceres Agriculture founders, Alick Lazare Jr. and Diamond Kelshall, the Ceres Agriculture app was created to collect data on farmers, most notably, the type and availability of the various produce they harvest and sell and to also serve as a platform for interested buyers to access this data to place and track orders online.

“This app is about creating a very efficient and easy stream of communication between organisations like DEXIA, farmers that supply them and also large-scale buyers like supermarkets,” says Lazare, Head of Research and Development at Ceres Agriculture.

Under this pilot agreement, DEXIA will connect Ceres Agriculture with farmers who will make up a test group, providing key information which will be uploaded to the app. This data will be used to understand the viability of Ceres as a business platform and will be further analysed to iron out any areas for improvements in ease of use. Data will also be submitted to DEXIA for use in enhancing its operations.

According to Kelshall, Head of Marketing at Ceres, both parties to the agreement stand to gain significant benefit by the end of the 12-month period.

“In one year, we hope to amass as much data as possible on local crops, livestock and our local market and develop the app to make it easier for farmers to use and to be applicable to the general public as well,” he said.

DEXIA’s General Manager, Paula Platsko, shares similar sentiments.

“It is our hope that this Ceres Agriculture software application will assist in enhancing DEXIA’s capabilities to interact with farmers, exporters and hucksters in providing timely market statistics which will allow us to make informed purchasing and sales decisions”, she stated.

This initiative falls in line with Government’s digital transformation efforts, recently highlighted by Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, who during his 2021 Independence address on Wednesday 3rd November 2021, indicated Government’s interest to spend “over EC$75 million on activities to spur innovation, productivity and growth” in several areas to include entrepreneurship development.  As Hon. Skerrit has said, there is “no turning back [from] the digital revolution.” DEXIA is surely embracing the realities of our increasingly digitised world.

MPPH operations will therefore benefit from this digitisation of both supplier and customer content.  Head of Operations at the MPPH, Bristol Lawrence sees this is an opportunity and a move in the right direction to improve efficiencies at the MPPH.

“We believe, with the Ceres app, it will help increase our marketing efforts- especially among young farmers. It’s an exciting programme which we believe will help farmers to market and bring greater efficiency towards our efforts at the Pack Houses.”

The Roseau and Portsmouth Pack Houses were constructed with funds from the European Union (EU) and commissioned in 2016 with funds from the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica (GoCD) and Caribbean Development Fund (CDF).  These two locations are the main processing plants for fresh produce leaving the island. The Pack Houses adhere to strict international standards and compliance codes.   Apart from processing produce for export, the Goodwill and Portsmouth locations produce value-added products in the form of frozen dasheen chunks, passion fruit pulp and hot pepper mash.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

3 Comments

  1. Gary
    November 11, 2021

    When will we hear DEXIA sign a major contract of Agricultural produce for export. The two processing plants for fresh produce leaving the island are they functional and running. The funds from the EU and the Government of Dominica is not permanent funding, do you guys have a plan to be self-sufficient to run this as a profitable entity when the funding has dried up. These young entrepreneurs, why don’t they explore the avenue in the Agriculture Industry, instead of making an app to collect data. The Country need innovators to get foreign revenue. Agriculture is a
    business, there is a vast spinoff from the sector to expand our economy, is such an app that relevant or newsworthy.

    What is wrong with the Statistical Dept. of The Government within the Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Trade don’t they have the resources to collect such data. Let’s not get caught up and carried away with nice sounding names like digital transformation, time to be pragmatic.

  2. Try
    November 9, 2021

    Haha It may be too late for you lazy Dominicans because the Haitians have take mostly all Dominica agricultural land. Take a look at the Roseau market and every street around Dominica…. They have blanketed the entire island with all sorts of produce cultivated by squatting land right, left and center. They are way ahead, while our young men sit along every street smoking stinking shiii…. Even your houses they have taken and occupied; while you rely on government handouts. I was cleaning my land for planting and I was mistaken for a Haitian by some people. Now, think about and what has happened to our people. Look now our young men are dying like flies leaving more room for the Haitian. If, I was mistaken for a Haitian because I was cleaning my land, then we need to ask ourselves a very serious question about what’s going on in Dominica.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available