Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
GRANT
WESTERN BUREAU:
PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Senator Norman Grant, says St. Elizabeth farmers need support from the Government and private sector if their hurricane recovery efforts are to succeed.
"No support has come at all to the farmers," he told Wednesday Business. After assessing the damage to the industry caused by hurricanes, he said an open letter was sent to the Ministry of Agriculture, but the JAS has not received a response.
Citing the passage of Hurricane Ivan, the JAS letter warned government against slashing import duties to alleviate shortage on cash crops and other traditional food items, he said.
"As you recall, the Government last year slashed import duties on vegetables and other produce immediately following Hurricane Ivan to ease the shortage and protect the consumers from inflated prices," the letter said, "only shortly after the government witnessed that the 220 per cent reduction was not being passed on to the consumer."
Noting that a speedy recovery is the only way to get the industry back into gear, the letter also suggested that the government should allow the farmers to benefit from the produce shortage as it would be one sure way of recovering some of the losses due to the passage of Hurricane Wilma.
"The local farmers should be allowed to maximise the profits from what is left of their crop, to at least partially recover the losses they suffered during the rains," the letter stated.
