The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE developer behind a major pig farm project in Grand Bahama says it is being held up by bureaucratic licensing and registration.

He told Tribune Business that the government needed to create an ‘enabling environment’ so that the project could move forward.

Michael Douglas, director of business development at Rose Farmland Ltd told Tribune Business that agro-ecological meat processing initiative would create upwards of 175 jobs in the construction phase alone.

Rose Farmland is proposing to create a 600-sow farrow in Phase I, followed by vertically integrated slaughter and packaging facilities in Phase II. The development will be located in High Rock, Grand Bahama.

Mr Douglas told Tribune Business: “In full operation you get all the speciality people in there you are talking at least 80-100 people once that’s completed. Once we go into production we are talking about ancillaries, people responsible for waste movement, sanitation and that probably jumps to another 50 people. There are part-time opportunities and full-time opportunities. There are significant opportunities just talking about the farm side.

“When you talk about Phase I we are talking about hiring people in the sales department and transportation but we have to get there and we have to get there in small steps.

“The simple fact is that I am not being afforded the creation of an enabling environment to achieve the things I need to achieve in a timely basis, to keep my suppliers confident about my ability to do this thing. It’s hurting me and it’s hurting me bad. I have suppliers who have been waiting on me the past four years.”

Mr Douglas added: “I need a company that is registered and licensed in the Bahamas so that Rose farm Land Ltd can start assuming its own responsibility. That hasn’t happened, not because of a lack of effort on my part, it’s the mechanism. I don’t know what to say about the process. I’m a Bahamian and I’m hoping for the best.”

Mr Douglas said that he was ready to move forward with the project with $1 million having been invested in it to date.

“We are ready. I have started taking résumés already. I’m not necessarily waiting to hear from anyone. I didn’t start this as the typical Bahamian business. I don’t want the government to put me in business and frankly I don’t want the government in my business but there is something called the creation of enabling environment. That’s all I’m asking, create that enabling environment and I will do the rest. I am prepared to do that. If there are available grants for me let me go ahead and register, get licensed so I can  be eligible for these grants. I’m a businessman, I’m a developer, this is business,” said Douglas.