Cruise ships buying local

Cruise ships off the coast of Barbados are continuing to source some of their food for crew members from local farmers at their own cost.

Word of this has come from chair person of the Bridgetown Port Inc. Senator Lisa Cummins who dismissed suggestions that the country was responsible for taking care of them while they were docked here.

In fact, she said the island continued to earn revenue from those cruise ships as they source some of their dietary needs from local farmers to complement what they  have imported.

She said: “Based on what I see on a daily basis in terms of request for persons to access the port to provide services to the ships, there is still economic activity to a number of local businesses. Wherever there is an opportunity for provisioning to take place for the ships that is still taking place.

“We don’t have to provide food for them. They are working very closely with us. They are taking food in from us, so you have a number of local providers who ordinarily have contracts with the ships to provide them with food. So I have a schedule now where for [this week] we know what food supplies are being provided. So whether it is fruits, meat, vegetables, those kinds of things come from many of the local producers and some of the produce is in fact imported based on the volumes that they may need,” she explained.

The cruise ships docked off the shores of Bridgetown, some of which have more than 250 crew members aboard, have also been getting items from their parent companies.

Cummins pointed out that with vessels only having crew members, it was expected that the amount of food being sourced would be substantially lower than if they had passengers on board.

“The same quantities that they may have been importing or procuring locally before with passengers on board they are no longer procuring but they are still procuring at their own cost of course, food supplies and everything else,” said Cummins.