KINGSTOWN – Heavy and persistent ashfall on the fertile soil of St Vincent is derailing production for many cannabis farmers, including one whose sights are set on breaking into the Barbadian medicinal marijuana market.
Robert Forde told Barbados TODAY that more than half of his five-acre medical cannabis licence will have to be discarded after the buds on the plants were flooded with ash from the eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano.
Declaring that his losses are in the region of $140,000, Forde explained that the only marijuana plants that were still worth harvesting are those kept within the confines of a greenhouse on his land at Dumbarton, deep within the Mesopotamia Valley, in the island’s southcentral farming heartland.
Forde told Barbados TODAY: “As a cannabis farmer, luckily I had up to one greenhouse, so I was able to save a greenhouse of weed. Everything else on the outdoors has been almost completely destroyed, so it’s going to have a major impact on us financially.
“I was at the point of signing a deal with a foreign company that had foreign connections to sell a product. Those guys are still here in the country and we are still looking forward to moving forward if the volcano permits.
“So I did lose some from the eruption like everybody else. But all in all, I still am a lot better off than most of the guys, sorry to say.
So my heart goes out to them.”
The Vincentian grower explained that with the exception of foreign players, most Vincentian farmers engage in outdoor farming, leaving them devastated.
In addition to the short-term impacts, Forde noted that over time, the ash would turn to sulphur which could alter the soil and affect the quality of the cannabis.
Forde said: “Whatever big plants that were outside more than likely are gone and that is a serious part of our livelihood here in St Vincent, especially now that the medical cannabis thing has kicked off and we have a few foreigners buying products to extract.
“So a lot of people were looking forward to making some money right now and the volcano, unfortunately, has erupted and created havoc here.”
Forde, who was born in Barbados but migrated to the land of his mother, owns enterprises in trucking, heavy equipment and cannabis. But he also has plans of expanding his production of more than six strains of marijuana to Barbados, where he hopes to cultivate the drug and open a cannabis dispensary.
Forde has already retained the services of Denton’s Law firm in his application for a licence to enter the medicinal cannabis industry. But he did not shy away from proving some insight into his vision for a merger of the tourism and medical cannabis industries.
He told Barbados TODAY: “COVID has wrecked our tourism in a big way. People like [Prime Minister] Mia Mottley have offered the one-year [remote] work visa and it is a brilliant move and many of these people will be coming with the desires to get weed, because they may have sleeping issues, glaucoma and all kinds of issues that cannabis helps. So right now I think the Southern Caribbean is geared for a cannabis tourism type of industry that could change our world down here.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be about beaches. We have nuff mountainsides and off the road types of situations that people would like to come to, but because there is no great big incentive other than the traditional white sand beach, it makes it a little difficult for us.
But we in St. Vincent with the Cannabis scene on the way… it could make a huge difference for us.” (kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)
