The government is seeking more reliable markets for local farmers, with Agriculture Minister Dr Shantal Munro-Knight saying purchase agreements with major retailers will be expanded to help boost production and exports.
Munro-Knight also said currently, there are more than 50 agreements to purchase produce from small farmers through the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation’s (BADMC) Farmers Enfranchisement and Empowerment Drive (FEED) programme.
She was speaking to Barbados TODAY against the backdrop of the reopening of Massy Stores Worthing in Christ Church earlier this month and Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s call for agreements to purchase farmers’ produce to become a formal part of supermarket operations.
Mottley, speaking at the reopening, said farmers could not be expected to increase production based solely on the possibility that supermarkets would purchase their crops.
She also announced that the government would provide two million dollars every quarter to support arrangements. The BADMC and Export Barbados will work with Massy and other partners to help grow the agro-processing industry.
Munro-Knight said the process still needed improvement.
“It’s not lost on anybody that we do have to get the contract buy-in streamlined a little bit better,” she said.
She said the BADMC was also being tasked with expanding purchasing opportunities for farmers through its own pack house, while collaboration with Export Barbados was focused on establishing agreements with larger supermarket chains.
“Together with Export Barbados, Minister Jonathan Reid, we’ve been working together…to open up again and get some set agreements with some of those larger supermarket chains, whether it’s Massy, Popular, and whoever,” Munro-Knight said.
However, she stressed that the government was looking beyond the domestic market to export opportunities.
“Barbados is a small market, and therefore we are going to establish a concentrated technical expert group that will allow us then to be able to begin to identify the markets, what it is that we can produce at scale, where we’ll be able to put that investment locally, and then…how we can open up the markets as well,” she said.
Munro-Knight acknowledged that the process would take time, and asked farmers to remain patient as the Government works through the necessary steps.
She said meeting quality standards, conducting the necessary testing and ensuring consistent production would all be important to building a strong export sector.
“If you want to be able to export… fresh produce, you have to have some standards and testing and stuff like that,” she said.
“We also then have to get farmers to produce consistently.”
(SB)
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