Chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, James Paul, is urging agriculturalists to step out.
He made that call yesterday during a media conference in Queen’s Park, St Michael, prior to this year’s Agrofest, which takes place from today until Sunday.
“We want to encourage our local Barbadian exhibitors to come out and stop hiding things under a rock because nobody will see them that way. I want to reach out to Barbadian agriculturalists; you cannot hide your light under a rock. It needs to come out because the point is that if we want further support from Government in the things that we do, we have to show Government what we are doing, we have to show the public what we are doing so that we can get that level of support that we actually need,” he said.
Make linkages
Paul encouraged locals to come to the festival and make linkages with visiting guests, such as those from the Venezuelan contingent, which is fielding a larger group this year. The men and women from South America are here representing businesses from two Venezuelan states, Lara and Sucre, as well as the returning Simón Bolívar Latin Caribbean Orchestra. Paul said there were prime opportunities for both countries to learn from each other.
Barbados’ Ambassador to Venezuela, Aquinas Clarke, said hosting the Venezuelans again was an important step in light of the country’s intention to diversify its portfolio and develop linkages to the southern countries. He said the contingent this year consisted of 48 people, compared to 32 last year, and he continued to work towards one day facilitating a 100-person contingent.
“Venezuela has a lot to offer and it is also a potential export market for Barbadians. One municipality in Venezuela has about a million people, which is almost five times our population. So, to form a relationship with one state in Venezuela to export Barbadian products, we have a much larger market than here in Barbados.
“To create it with two states doubles the cost. So, we have a lot of opportunities and my job here is to open doors for Barbadians in Venezuela, but also to maintain a relationship of building, of sharing, between Barbados and Venezuela that will benefit all our peoples,” he said.
Andrew Varela, the president of Sucre Export, said one of the major initiatives they were exploring was establishing a direct cargo maritime route between Barbados and Venezuela.
In addition to Venezuela, there will be representatives from St Kitts, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil.
As for Agrofest, Paul said one innovation this year he was excited about was containerised gardening, an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“That is something the ministry, over the last year or so, has put a huge investment into in terms of showing how we can actually grow and use containers in order to grow produce, especially leafy vegetables and herbs. That is one of the things I’m really looking forward to seeing in the Ministry’s tent this year, and it is, to my mind, the prime thing that I think I would encourage people who come to the exhibition to come and see.
“This is actually something that we are doing in Barbados; it is relatively new and I think that is something that a lot of people can take advantage of and develop at the same time,” he said.
Paul also addressed the issue of them having to turn away vendors. He said it was a case of limited space and a limited budget, adding it was unfortunate they could not accommodate everyone who desired to take part. (CA)
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