US Virgin Islands Governor John de Jongh has submitted to the Legislature modifications to the agreement between the government of the Virgin Islands and Cruzan, VIRIL, Ltd, the St Croix producer of Cruzan Rum and other bulk rum products.
The changes aim to assure a greater ability for Cruzan to compete in critical markets for bulk rum.
The government signed its agreement with Cruzan three years ago, and it said that in the interim many of these markets have become substantially more competitive.
De Jongh and Beam, Cruzan’s parent company, have agreed to proposed revisions in their existing agreement which would stabilize the govenrment’s support for bulk rum at levels below current levels.
In exchange, Cruzan has agreed to specific goals for steady increases in aggregate production and for continued investments in products that will bear “Virgin Islands rum” labels.
Cruzan reportedly fears that without the changes it could lose its historically strong competitive position in the bulk rum market.
Until Diageo’s construction of the Captain Morgan distillery, which began production this year, it had been the primary source of rum excise tax revenues generated for the government’s General Fund and capital investment across the USVI.
“These mutually beneficial adjustments will give the Cruzan distillery the tools we need to compete in the important bulk rum market while we continue to invest in and grow the Cruzan Rum brand,” said Gary Nelthropp, president of Cruzan Rum.
Governor de Jongh called the proposed amendments “both timely for our need for revenue stability and corporate community involvement and necessary to sustain and strengthen a company that has been our partner for many years.”
US Virgin Islands Governor Proposes Modifications to Cruzan Rum Agreement courtesy of Caribjournal.com
St Lucia Looks to Costa Rica for Help in Fight to Save Banana Industry
St Lucia is continuing to look for solutions in its fight against the Black Sigatoka disease, which has been ravaging the country’s agricultural sector and its banana industry in particular.
Agriculture Minister Moses Jean Baptiste is now in Costa Rica on an official visit, looking to discuss the issue with authorities in that country, which has had success in combating Black Sigatoka, according to Jadia Jean Pierre Emmanuel, press secretary to St Lucian Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony.
Baptiste has previously called the disease a “national crisis.”
“We all know that in St Lucia, our agriculture sector, particularly our bananas, are being severely affected by the Black Sigatoka,” she said. “Minister Baptiste has outlined some of the plans the government of St Lucia hopes to implement in the coming weeks to deal with this problem, but as part of moving forward, there will need to be consultation with our various partners in the region.”
Baptiste is in Costa Rica at the invitation of the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.
“This is one issue the Minister will be discussing while in Costa Rica and upon return to the island he will be giving a report to the public,” she said.
During the visit, the Minister will also pay a courtesy call on Costa Rica’s Agriculture Minister and visit a number of farms in the country.
St Lucia Looks to Costa Rica for Help in Fight to Save Banana Industry courtesy of Caribjournal.com
Barbados Mulls Agriculture Overhaul
An overhaul to Barbados’ agriculture sector is long overdue, according to prominent agriculturalist Dr Chelston Brathwaite.
Brathwaite said Barbados is still operating a model inherited from the pre-independence period.
“That model has run its course,” he said. “We have changed education, health, [and] our infrastructure but we have not changed the agricultural sector.”
It’s a view shared by Agriculture Minister Dr David Estwick, who said that the sector in its current form was “stymied and constrained.”
Agriculture has remained between 3.5 and 3.7 percent of GDP in the country for the last 15 years, the Minister said.
“I believe we can make agriculture a viable and even greater contributor to the Gross Domestic Product,” he said. “For too long, there has been a view that agriculture is dead or dying but … I believe we can make the sector a vibrant, financially viable entity.”
Estwick was speaking to members of the country’s new National Agricultural Commission, which held its first meeting on Friday.
Earlier this month, the government announced it was making a push to encourage citizens on home gardening.
In the autumn, Eastwick announced that making the sector more technologically advanced was also a priority.
Courtesy of Caribjournal.com
Man Of The Soil Short Film
Man Of The Soil documentary by Pierre Deschamps is the portrait of a man called Jerry Maka West, a simple man, a Nom Tèw, creole for “a man of the soil” shot in Dominica, “the nature isle”. The documentary illustrates Jerry working his garden in the island’s lush interior juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of city life. In his garden, his Zion, Jerry grows and prepares his food just as his grandparents did.
The modern world’s complexities passes him by as he weaves in and out, circumventing it, never really being caught up in it. Instead he prefers to live close to nature, working hard and putting back just as much in as he taking out.
Harmony with a living earth, Dominica, the nature island, Jerry Maka West lives the kind of life most of his contemporaries have forsaken, yet many would no doubt envy in a world that has become a confusion of questionable priorities and trivia.
Man of the soil – Best short film award IFFF 2011 from Deschamps Pictures Ltd on Vimeo.
Man Of The Soil documentary has been accepted at eighteen international film festivals including the prestigious International Berlin Film Festival and was awarded for Best Editing and A Special Motion for Best Cinematography. The documentary also won an award for Best Film in the Short Films category at the International Forests Film Festival. The film also won Special Motion for Cinematography/Bridgetown Int. Film Festival 2009 and Coup de Coeur/Terra Festival 2011.
Man Of The Soil has been presented at a number of Caribbean film festivals which include: Barbados Bridgetown International Film Festival, BIFF Bahamas International Film Festival, Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, International Berlin Film Festival.
More at Pierre Deschamps website
Peirre Dechamps blog
Shout out to Two Step Video for sending us this.
Farmers In Dominica Urged To Diversify Into Pineapple Production
ROSEAU, Dominica (GIS) — The Nature Island Pineapple Producers Ltd (NIPPA), in collaboration with the Division of Agriculture, hosted a training exercise last week in sustainable pineapple production in Dominica for domestic and export markets.
Dr Vivian Moise, the vice president of NIPPA, explained that the workshop was specifically organised for new pineapple growers in Dominica.
“This programme is funded by the FAO and we have been working with them over the past two years to develop the pineapple value chain in Dominica. One of the critical elements of the value chain was to expand the production base of pineapples. The people you are seeing with us today are people who have voiced on interest in becoming pineapple farmers and they are undergoing the necessary training,” he said.
Moise wants to see more farmers get involved in pineapple production.
“It is a profitable business to be involved: the commercial production of pineapples. It is probably one of the easier crops to grow. It has proved to be a worthwhile venture for those people who are involved in it. There is scope for many more farmers to be involved and those people who are hearing from me by this medium, I would encourage them to come and speak to us and we will give them the necessary information. We are looking for more people to grow pineapples in Dominica,” he explained.
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