The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

THE Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation’s (BAIC) executive chairman yesterday said the agency is focused on improving the distribution of local farm produce as a means to improve the country’s food security.

Leroy Major said that BAIC and related government agencies are seeking to boost agriculture across the Family Islands after the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent supply chain disruption and inflation, exposed just how vulnerable The Bahamas - with its $1bn annual food import bill - is to global shortages.

“We visited Abaco and Andros to engage and support farmers in developing modern techniques like vertical farming, hydroponics and aquaponics to expand and sustain agribusiness in our country,” he said. “Our intention is to visit every island in The Bahamas and to engage the farmers and stakeholders, and to encourage them to make a contribution towards food security.”

Mr Major, also the Southern Shores MP, is hoping to reenergise the agricultural industry by encouraging young persons to see farming as a viable economic opportunity. He said BAIC is partnering with the private sector to strengthen local distribution, and hopes to have food processing units established throughout the Family Islands.

“We are building a relationship with The Bahamas’ food distributors and other stakeholders to implement a modern day distribution packing house system in our country,” he said.

“The aim and objective of the new administration of BAIC is to have a food processing unit established on the grounds of the corporation to be occupied by Bahamian food processors, and to have a food processing unit attached to every packing house throughout the family of islands.”

Mr Major said he envisions a day when store shelves are dedicated solely to Bahamian products, and is working with various agencies to see that through.

“The long run of this is that we want to see more of our Bahamian products on the shelves of our country, and not only that. We will do our best hopefully in a number of years to ensure that our products are not only sold here locally, but also in the foreign market. And this is one of the avenues we are using to bring our stakeholders together. They can see what we have now, and they can help us better the product to move forward,” he added.

Mr Major acknowledged that buying Bahamian goods will prove more costly for local distributors and wholesalers. However, he believes the public will still demand them because of the confidence they have in its origins.

He was especially enthusiastic about BAIC’s upcoming poultry initiative, which is designed to reduce The Bahamas’ reliance on foreign eggs.

“One of the areas that I’ll be focusing on next month is the poultry industry in the country where we’re going to look into the importation of chicken eggs coming into the country and see how best we can pull our farmers together, who are producing eggs, to stop the importation,” Mr Major said.

“Because, as we know, the eggs we import into the country, they are not fresh eggs, and so we have to take this step by step, but the doors have been opened here at BAIC and we have a lot of people coming in for opportunities and we are doing our best to meet the demand.”

As to the ability of Bahamian farmers to compete with foreign imports, Mr Major said there need be no direct rivalry between the two. He added that BAIC, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, is working with farmers to ensure foods are produced on schedule and that they meet the public’s needs.

“The bottom line is this. We don’t need our farmers to compare and compete with (imports),” Mr Major said. “And so once we know we can produce ‘x’ amount, my minister on the flip end of Parliament will ensure (to) put a stay on those particular produce coming to the islands.”