A tough-talking Chief Agricultural Officer told the House of Assembly on Wednesday that his department will do its job at the ports of entry without fear or favour, as he reported the discovery of scorpions and crop pests in examinations.
Michael James was speaking in the Well of Parliament and responding to questions from St Michael South MP Kirk Humphrey, who formerly had responsibility for the Bridgetown Port when he was minister of the blue economy.
James contended that while his department’s role was to facilitate trade, it also had a responsibility to protect the island from pests and diseases that could come in along with imported foods, plants and produce.
“It is the role of the regulatory agencies at the Ministry of Agriculture to facilitate trade. We are in no way trying to stop trade or prevent people from trading; however, there are risks associated with the movement, particularly of fresh fruits and vegetables coming into the country,” he asserted.
James stressed that while some in the business community might regard their rigorous checks of imported goods as a hindrance, he pointed a finger at habitual offenders in the sector who failed to get the required phytosanitary and other licences before importing products.
He said his department has in the past blocked the entry of containers of imported goods that lacked the required documentation, much to the chagrin of the importer.
The Chief Agricultural Officer revealed his officers had discovered during their checks various bugs on imported live Christmas trees. He said they have even discovered scorpions and various types of lizards during their checks.
He informed the House they also found dangerous infestations on imported sweet potatoes that could destroy local sweet potato production had it not been stopped at the Port, and revealed that a new pest from outside the Caribbean which impacts okra and cotton had found its way into Barbados.
According to James, while the Port can X-ray containers for contraband, a similar process was not available for agricultural products when inspecting for pests, insects, bacteria and viruses.
He said: “In the past couple of months, by the grace of God and good detective work on our part, we stopped at least two important pests from getting into the country. One was related to sweet potato – a cylas [on] imported sweet potato [brought] from a country from which they did not have a permit and did not have a phytosanitary certificate, and it was riddled with cylas.
“Cylas is one of the most important sweet potato pests in the world; it flies. We have a weevil in Barbados . . . but that pest that we have bears no comparison to the cylas. It got in but we managed to capture it at the Port.”
At the same time, the chief agricultural officer said the department had introduced some measures that would speed up the processing of some categories of imports such as frozen products, as he stressed that it will not tolerate a free-for-all.
“We cannot travel without a passport; the phytosanitary certificate is the passport for the particular product. . . . If you don’t have the phytosanitary certificate for a particular product, it cannot be allowed to land here.
“We do not know what is in it. We had occasions where people brought a whole container without a phytosanitary certificate. What are we supposed to do? It cannot be landed. So, we said ‘no, you have to ship it back’. [Do] you know how much grief we got for that? We cannot do the same thing in the United States or England. We cannot send products without a phytosanitary certificate to those countries, so why are we to allow it to come here?”
