The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas “must create a marriage” between its agriculture and tourism sectors to create economic sustainability, a senior tourism official yesterday describing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry of Education and the Sheraton Hotel as a “small step” towards that goal.

What began as a pilot farming project at the North Andros High School culminated yesterday with a signing between the Ministry of Education and the Sheraton Hotel, Cable Beach, for the provision of fresh produce to the resort.

“There is a need to start to link some of our other sectors to tourism, and that is important,” said Earlston McPhee, director of sustainable tourism.

“In the interest of economic sustainability, the Bahamas must create a marriage between the agriculture and tourism sectors. If we look at the dollar a visitors spends, every dollar that comes into the Bahamas, immediately $0.90 goes back out and a significant portion of that that goes to import foods items.

“We cannot compete with large operations in the United States, because on the scale they produce their per unit cost is much lower, but there are certain items we can competitively produce; it is fresher; we use less chemicals; and a a result it is distinct. That is a competitive advantage.”     

Mr McPhee added: “We need a conscious effort to make sure the agricultural sector can support the tourism sector. In moving forward we have to ensure that quality is there. You can’t think any other way.

“Back in the 1930s and 1940s, the Bahamas was a leader in agriculture. Before we got into tourism it supported our economy. If we are going to have a true impact on our tourism industry we have to find a way to marry our food import needs with our ability to produce some of these food items. Through this initiative we are hoping that the programme is introduced in other islands, and students can see they can make a living out of this and actually see farming as an alternative career path.”

 Rai Budhu, agriculture teacher at the North Andros High School, who is spearheading the project, told Tribune Business: “We’re going to be working with four acres of land. We are going to be planting tomatoes, sweet peppers, parsley, sweet peppers and thyme. Those are the crops they requested.

“I have about 135 students working with me, and I see them about twice a week in groups of 15 and 10.

“Our farm is not too much labour intensive because we do a lot of our land preparation with tractors. It’s a high technology operation, and we grow our seedlings in enclosed greenhouses so they are protected against the insects and diseases,” he added.

“Last season we sent a couple hundred bags of onions and tomatoes to the Sheraton so they could see the quality. Right now we have 2,000 sweet pepper plants, 1,000 tomatoes, 500 celery and parsley, and 160 papaya to go in the ground this week.”

Mr Budhu said he expected the first shipment of produce to be ready by mid-December.

Glenn Sampert, general manager at the Sheraton Hotel, told Tribune Business he was extremely pleased with the quality of the produce that was sent from the school, which exceeded the quality of foreign imports.

“What we had found in the initial stages was that the quality was there, but what we were looking for was a more consistent product in terms of ripeness,” Mr Sampert said.

“For example, tomatoes were coming, but maybe the box was mixed and so we communicated with the school. The programme was very responsive and it really helped provide us with what we were used to receiving. The quality of the items were very high; it was just having everything come in at the same degree of ripeness so we could use it right away.

“We understand that the school won’t provide all of the quantity we will require. That’s fine, we certainly just communicate what our needs are, they fill that need and anything they are not able to fill, they are not able to fill, and we go to our typical sources.

“We just want to make sure we are getting everything they are able to produce and providing that income to them, so that they have what they need to make this programme viable to them. It is educational but it has to be viable for both sides; that they are not producing at a loss and we are not paying above market.”