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While conceding that it has not been efficiently managed, former head of the Saint Lucia Fish Marketing Corporation (SLFMC) Dr. James fletcher has said the closure of the Saint Lucia Marketing Board (SLMB) is not the best alternative.
Instead, he believes that restructuring the government agency and or perhaps a consolidation of the unit with the Fish Marketing Corporation will present better benefits for the country as a whole, as opposed to being shut down.
Dr. Fletcher was speaking in response to Prime Minister Allen Chastanet’s recent budget presentation where he mentioned that government was considering shutting down some of its unprofitable agencies that are a continued liability to taxpayers, in order to cut the national debt. The SLFMC and SLMB were two of those organisations mentioned.
Dr. Fletcher said that while he does not believe that the Marketing Board should continue to operate as it stands, many farmers still depend on it for their survival and hence, a closure would result in their displacement. He proposed that the board be reorganised and turned into what he described as a wholesaler, purchaser and consolidator of fruits and vegetables which would then market produce to businesses.
“The Marketing Board as it currently exists cannot work because it’s not a place of first resort for you if you are going to buy produce. If you want to buy produce you go to the supermarket because the supermarket is a one-stop shop … what you have to do is transform it… make into a consolidator and purchaser of produce so that for example… make the Marketing Board operate in such a way that they take away the headache of the food and beverage managers at the hotels and restaurants,” said Dr. Fletcher, the forme Minister of the Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology.
“The same thing with the Fish Marketing Corporation…you have fishers who depend on the Fish Marketing Corporation to buy…fish… and if you take the Fish Marketing Corporation out of the equation you now leave our fishers with basically no outlet for that produce and that would be a very unfortunate activity,” he added.
Dr. Fletcher further argued that opportunities such as export exist particularly for a consolidated fish and produce marketing body however, “we would have to change our fishing methods.”
“We would have to look at long-line fishing for example, [and] our fishers [would] stay out a little bit longer but those are things that need to be done, and I think that these are things that hopefully will enter in the thinking of the government and … the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Hon. Ezekiel Joseph before any final decision is made,” Dr. Fletcher stated.
The prime minister, in his recent address, said that the Marketing Board currently handles approximately only 2 percent of the total produce of farmers. He said that the board has seen consecutive years of losses with liabilities that continue to burden taxpayers.
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