By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Network
rrolle@tribunmedia.net
CLOSE to $500,000 worth of “high grade phosphate” fertilisers have been donated to the Bahamas by the Government of Morocco and is now available for purchase “at a very reasonable price,” two government ministers announced yesterday.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell considered the donation a reflection of the “strong relationship” between the Bahamas and Morocco while Agriculture and Fisheries Minister V Alfred Gray emphasized that agriculture will be treated with “particular importance” under the Christie administration.
Explaining how the donation came about, Mr Mitchell said diplomatic relations and technical cooperation agreements between Morocco and the Bahamas were first struck in 2012 at a conference in Casablanca regarding “the situation in Syria.”
“One of the reasons that we were interested in this is that the Bahamas is a country searching for new sources of capital and technology,” he said, adding: “The Moroccans offered to deliver to us fertilizers. They are among the largest producers of fertilizers in the world and they also offered us scholarships to their institutions for students.”
Mr Gray added: “I cannot speak to how important this gift is to the development of agriculture in this country. There cannot be any serious farming in any country in any material way if you leave out fertilizers as part of your input. With several hundred tons of this wonderful fertilizer behind us, and with the agricultural thrust of the Government, I think it is a timely gift. We will certainly use most of it in Andros at the agriculture school, but I believe it will be sufficiently correct of me to say that we now have enough fertilizer to fertilize the entire Bahamas in terms of those who are wiling to get involved in farming.”
Mr Gray added that the fertilizers will be sold at a “very reasonable price” to cover freight costs to bring them to the Bahamas.
“Over a period of time we will certainly use every bag of it and I invite those from around the Bahamas looking for fertilizers at a very reasonable price to come,” he said. “Quite frankly we are just going to sell it to pay whatever the freight cost is. It was a gift to us so we don’t want to turn around and sell it but whatever the government’s cost might’ve been to clear it in terms of freight, we will put a little thing together for those who are interested in getting it.”
Mr Gray said that one bag of this premium fertilizer could regularly cost up to $2,400.
“And if we have several hundred tons,” he said, “that tells you this is probably very close to five hundred, six hundred thousand dollars worth of fertilizer.”
People interested in getting the fertilizers are urged to contact Simeon Pinder, the Director of Agriculture.
Mr Pinder, while contextualizing the country’s need for quality fertilizers, said: “One of the most limiting elements here for agriculture production is the availability of phosphates of a type that is among the most limited in terms of production in the Bahamas. Phosphates and limestone do not react well together. In fact, what the limestone does is it makes the phosphate unavailable. Any opportunity to add additional phosphates is certainly a plus to any type of production, whether you are doing vegetables, fruits, etc. This is the best grade phosphate that you can get. It’s a significant quantity and will benefit a lot of people.”
Comments
proudloudandfnm 10 years ago
Do the PLP really have to do a press release about Morocco donating a boat load of shit to the Bahamas? They really going overboard with these press releases now.. Muddos..
Cheap shit for sale folks. All thanks to the PLP!! LOL!!!
positiveinput 10 years ago
Did anyone of these officials read up on the dangers in making this fertilizer or the hazard that follows when introducing this product to the soil. All they know is something is being given out free and their wrist bends loosely to accept.
CANDACESCOTT 10 years ago
BOL!
GrassRoot 10 years ago
so it seems a donation to the Bahamian government not the Bahamian people.
proudloudandfnm 10 years ago
So da gubment getting the shit for free but ga sell it to us?
Man we getting shit on.....
sheeprunner12 10 years ago
Dats the shitty govment u'all put in...............LOL
Observer 10 years ago
Take it or leave it. You make the call.
TalRussell 10 years ago
Like this PLP cabinet is lacking in how easily they can pass gas? Sounds as good as any previous excuse for the government to appoint yet another Comrades patronage committee of loyal souls. cause somebody got's take the applications and handle the distribution of this $500,000 hereto “high grade phosphate.”
The_Oracle 10 years ago
The sad thing is they do not even see their error, charging for something donated to the people of the Bahamas. Waste cases.
wearedone 10 years ago
Sounds about right. Piece of shit government trying to sell shit they got for free.
sheeprunner12 10 years ago
I feel sorry for the Director of Agriculture Brennen. Can u imagine him trying to charge PLPs for fertilizer, that their government got for free?????!!!!!!!!
The politicians put the civil servants in a bind and then blame them when things go wrong. Look at the Police, Defence, DOE, COB, Immigration Departments. Dont even talk about the corporations.
The politicians need to leave the running of their departments to the technocrats, but if the civil servants get their jobs through the political backdoor???............ a tangled web
TalRussell 10 years ago
Some we still think Hubert's regime may have actually all but donated away BTC into hands of foreigner owners, ain't you still gotta pay your land and cellular phone bills or be disconnected? The Chinese government donated our National Stadium but can you attend all them events for free?
Reality_Check 10 years ago
Bomb making material from the wrong part of the world destined to end up in the USA thanks to Freddie Boy!
Purcell 10 years ago
It is not nanny based fertilizer :-) While at it will they also import water to irrigate with and top soil since fertilizer will not make up for lack of farmland? Might as well bring a boatload of ski boots in at cost.
GrassRoot 10 years ago
yep, what the Bahamas lacks is an indoor ski arena, that will put us on same wavelength as Dubai. Maybe an idea for one of the leading business men of the Bahamas?
EasternGate 10 years ago
Two piece a shit posing with a drayload a shit. How poetic
positiveinput 10 years ago
Like Purcell stated "it is not nanny based fertilizer" commonly called manure. However this nutrient is blamed for water pollution, algal blooms and dead zones in lakes and ponds. So actually is that was a container load of shit, we would have been better off. Yet our officials only know something is being given free. Like the man say, "You only get what you pay for". My fellow Bahamians, please read up on the dangers of this gift and let our officials know the meaning of return to sender. Stop using the Bahamas as a dumping ground.
stislez 10 years ago
Yall den sell us out! Na yall trying poison our naturally growing food with foreign fertilizer! I know Morocco want buy something from us what we aint supposed to sell and guess what.....................DAT GETTIN SELL DUTTY!
proudloudandfnm 10 years ago
I hope this government has put some thought to the logistics needed to get farmer goods on the shelves. One thing to grow it. Another entirely to get it on the shelves...
sheeprunner12 10 years ago
So u think big mouth V Alfred Gray gonna have the balls to tell the rich import merchants to stop buying foreign foods and start selling Bahamian products???????? Perry een no Michael Manley of Jamaica back in the 1970s....... Bay Street still run tings
John 10 years ago
Fertilizer in Morocco is not made from sewerage. They have naturally accouring phosphate deposits: From Forbes magazine"
King Of Rock
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Most royals may have to be a bit thriftier this year as fortunes plummet, but it’s not so for the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, whose 12 palaces reportedly cost $1 million a day to operate. His net worth is up $1 billion this year to $2.5 billion, making him the only one of the world’s 15 richest royals to have added to his fortune in the past year.
His savior is his country’s near monopoly of the commodity Phosphate. A key component of fertilizer, phosphorous, mined in the form of phosphate rock, is essential to global food production. “You cannot survive without phosphate–every cell on your body depends on it,” says Michael Lloyd, research director at the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research.
Morocco controls to nearly half the world’s phosphate deposits. Last year, the North African nation mined 28 million metric tons of phosphate rock, making it the third-largest producer in the world, behind China and the U.S., and the single biggest supplier. Proceeds from phosphate mining make up roughly half the country’s revenues.
It is a profitable business. The state-owned phosphate monopoly, Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) raked in an estimated $2.8 billion in net profit last year, a ninefold increase from the prior year, thanks to a surge in phosphate prices, which hit an all-time high of $500 per ton in July 2008, five times the 2007 average and more than 12 times the 2006 average.
The king himself rarely talks about phosphates, preferring instead to focus on socially progressive issues like women’s rights and standard of living. He created a new family law granting women more power and recently launched a $6 billion initiative to build housing for Morocco’s urban poor. But he does get a portion of the profits and almost certainly has a hand in the OCP’s business, particularly its admitted use of “dominance” in influencing phosphate’s price spike.
“That’s one thing you have to face: The Moroccan fertilizer industry is run by the government,” says Lloyd. “In the 1970s you could get phosphate for $4. Then one day they just decided to raise the price to $20.” Another analyst blamed last year’s high prices on the OCP’s maneuvers, though soaring agricultural demand and tightening supplies were certainly factors as well."
In the main time we are giving away thousands of tons or naturally occurring aragonite that could have built at least the PM's residence! If Morocco government gets $500.00 per ton for phosphate how much are we getting for aragonite?
John 10 years ago
"Aragonite is a naturally occurring calcium carbonate mineral precipitating from the waters of the Atlantic. It is 94-97% pure calcium carbonate (CaCo3) and forms when the tropical Bahamian waters warm. As the water temperature rises, the heat drives out the dissolved carbon dioxide gas. Carbon dioxide (Co2) levels become depleted, which disrupts the oceanic status quo. In response, the ocean’s buffering system breaks down bicarbonate ions. This produces Co2 as well as carbonate ions. The carbonate ions then combine with calcium to form calcium carbonate, which crystallizes into tiny particles called “oolites†(egg stones). These drift downward and give the appearance of a white mist as they become thick deposits of beautiful aragonite sand."
John 10 years ago
Picture this: Phosphate nets the Morocco government $500.00 a ton and the King of Morocco has 12 palaces and is worth $2.5 BILLION DOLLARS! Morocco is also on the list of the happiest countries to live in. Aragonite is found in its purist from in the Bahamas, it is renewable, causes little or no damage to mine and sells for up to $700.00 a ton (SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS). The Bahamas did not make the happy list and we can't even afford a residence for the prime minister? What's wrong with this picture?
GrassRoot 10 years ago
We should manufacture Phosphate - there must be a way to do this.
sheeprunner12 10 years ago
How much do we make off aragonite?????????????
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