Paul warns against indiscriminate imports that could hurt sector

The government’s bid to bolster food security appeared to clash with the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) on Thursday as the head of the farmers group urged the Mia Mottley administration to shun “reckless” imports of food from CARICOM neighbours.

A day after Surinamese Minister of Agriculture Parmanand Sewdien said 10 000 kilogrammes of fruits and vegetables would be shipped weekly, as Surinam Airways inaugurated twice-weekly flights to Barbados, BAS chief executive James Paul said he was “appalled” by the “horrific” move and issued a strong challenge to the government to avoid “indiscriminate” importation for its own sake.

Stressing that the BAS was “totally unaware” of the arrangement, Paul said: “I want to sound a warning and a very serious warning that the indiscriminate and reckless importation of agricultural products in this country can actually destroy the agricultural sector in Barbados.”

He cited “contamination” of several fruits and vegetables from other Caribbean countries while admitting that tight food and safety protocols at the ports of entry prevented pests and diseases from decimating domestic agricultural production.

Paul told Barbados TODAY that “reckless” importation did not only pose a serious threat to local production in terms of disease but it could put scores of farmers out of business.

“When I read the comments, I was a bit alarmed and I hoped that maybe the minister was misinformed,” he said. “I wonder where he gets this figure from. Bringing in 10 000 kilogrammes of agricultural products on a weekly basis is horrific. The amount seems large; bearing in mind our ability to absorb produce, that would have a negative impact on our local agricultural community.”

Paul said Barbados was free of pests and diseases that he said plagued some Caribbean countries, as he warned the government that the imports could be putting the island at serious risk.

“There is a disease called the Black Sigatoka disease. If that ever was to get into this country, we would have real issues in terms of banana production. The spores of these plants are difficult to manage, they are even on the clothes of people who may have recently gone on a farm; that is why when you go to the United States, they ask you if you were on a farm recently. That question is so important for us in Barbados because you will find that there are certain diseases and viruses that are very present in other Caribbean countries, especially the South American mainland, which unfortunately, Guyana and Suriname happen to be on. So they are rife with viruses and diseases that we do not have in Barbados,” the BAS head said.

Black Sigatoka is a leaf spot disease of banana and plantain plants caused by an airborne fungus. Since it emerged in Honduras in 1972, it has spread to virtually all major banana-producing countries in the Caribbean.

Referring to the Giant African Snail outbreak in Barbados more than a decade ago, Paul said Barbados must be very wary of the sources of imported food.

He declared: “If you take a crop like sweet potatoes, there are certain diseases that neighbouring countries have and if those sweet potatoes were able, by chance, to escape the environs of the Bridgetown Port, it would destroy local sweet potato production.

“When you bring in eddoes from St Vincent or other neighbouring countries with dirt on it, you don’t know what you are importing. People forget how quickly the African snails spread after a shipment came inside here a few years ago. The good thing was we were able to get it under control and it didn’t pose a severe threat as it could.

“So can you imagine what would happen to our banana production if any reckless importation occurs, especially those that have not been properly inspected? So when I hear this eagerness sometimes and the figures, I wonder . . . if these people are thinking about the interest of Barbados or if they only have their populations to serve,” the CEO said.

As he welcomed the Surinam Airways inaugural flight to Barbados on Wednesday, Sewdien announced that Suriname was increasing its shipment of bananas to Barbados and was planning to send more produce such as passion fruit, dragon fruit, watermelon, pumpkin, ginger and lemons.

Paul said Barbados must not relax its border protocols and must put more initiatives in place to support Barbadian farmers.

“We have to maintain the local agricultural sector at all costs,” he said. “Any product coming into this country must first be subject to rigorous scrutiny. If you look at the islands along the Eastern Caribbean, Barbados is even more resilient than some of them when you look at the variety and type of crops that we produce and we have to protect that. Sometimes lapses in important procedures cause these problems but we don’t have those problems because we have our veterinary authorities and plant pathologists [who] work in the laboratories at the Ministry of Agriculture, but with slim resources.

“Government must provide those persons with adequate resources to be able to monitor and police what is coming to this country when it comes to both plant and animal products, in order to ensure that our sector is adequately protected from the threats of pests, disease and viruses. If not, this free-for-all attitude that we have in our merchant population in terms of bringing anything from anywhere would put us in trouble.”

The BAS chief said he was aware that several figures in the mercantile industry were putting pressure on the government to import food, reasoning that local produce was too expensive. But he called on the government to stick by the farmers regardless, to ensure the island had some degree of food sovereignty.

“We hear a lot of people walking around and talking about how expensive local food is,” said Paul. “Barbados is not the only place with high food prices. We checked the prices in Jamaica recently, even in terms of poultry, and we found out that we are not so far off. There are people here who are trying to cause some kind of panic in some cases, to force government to say we need to import but I want to encourage government to hold faith in the farmers.”

He declared that people talking about increasing imports “are ignorant and lack empathy for farmers”.

Paul said farmers needed subsidies and other initiatives to make their offerings more competitive.

“Farmers in this country need assistance in a very real way in terms of trying to improve their production capacities and capabilities,” he said. “When you look at the assistance going to the agricultural sector in other places in the Caribbean, it definitely puts our farmers at a disadvantage in terms of competing with these people.”

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb