By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
AGRICULTURE Minister V Alfred Gray defended the Christie administration’s decision yesterday to order $1m worth of lime trees from California for research and development purposes at the Agriculture and Marine Science Institute in North Andros.
Mr Gray was responding to concerns about the move on the Darold Miller Live talk show after Mr Miller questioned him on bringing lime trees from abroad when the trees are grown by local farmers in the Bahamas.
Prime Minister Perry Christie had hinted at the move to import the limes on the sidelines of the Eleuthera Business Outlook last week when he said “today in The Bahamas we have Mexican limes. The limes are coming in now with little juice in them. We just could not find limes. I have just authorised the purchase of three or four or five thousand lime trees out of California.”
Mr Gray said: “What the prime minister envisioned is that we ought to be in a position to be self-sufficient, if only in lime production. Now you know in Abaco there was a farm that grew limes, oranges, grapefruits, all of that, some 100,000 acres of it. But the canker disease caused us in 2003 or 2004 to destroy the whole farm lest it destroy the whole country of its citrus production. Had we not had to do that, we probably wouldn’t be in the state we are in now. So what the Prime Minister, as I understood it, did, was commission an order of 1000 trees from California and he would certainly put those trees at the school in Andros.”
Mr Gray added: “The school in Andros is not only a learning institution; things will happen in terms of production. We’re going to have potato chips, banana chips, the school is growing things as part of its own initiative, producing these things on its own volition and the school will become a marketing tool for farmers in Eleuthera, Acklins, Cat Island (etc). It’s not too long from now where we will be self-sufficient in some things to be announced.”
A major shortage of limes in Mexico, Florida and Southern California has pushed lime prices through the roof this year.
According to the Canadian paper, The Vancouver Sun, bad weather and a bacterial disease infecting fruits are partly to blame for the rising prices of limes coming out of Mexico, the largest supplier of limes in North America. In fact, Mexican gangs have been hijacking trucks and extorting money from those who grow limes.
Underscoring the growing need to be self-sufficient with lime production, Mr Gray said: “Before the shortage you could get three limes for a dollar. Now you could get two for $2.19.”
Nonetheless, the issue over supplying limes in the country isn’t the first time this year the government has faced criticism for its efforts to develop the Agriculture and Marine Science Institute in North Andros.
Earlier this month, Acklins residents criticised the government’s decision to transport some of that island’s cascarilla plants to Andros. The residents claimed that the plants’ removal may adversely affect their island’s economy. The bark of the cascarilla is stripped and shipped to Italy as the flavouring in Campari.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 10 years, 6 months ago
My God!! These amateurs! Someone read the papers and saw an article about a lime shortage so this group of amateurs says.... "Hey!! This can make some good PR, les go buy some limes"... Mudda sic!!!
B_I_D___ 10 years, 6 months ago
By the time this little money scheme plays out, the global price of limes will have recovered and as is usually the case, it will be more cost effective to buy limes in from abroad. What's going to happen...3-4 years down the road, when the lime trees have stabilized and are bearing salable fruit, they will be too expensive, and the government will then whack the importers with protective tariffs and we will be forced to pay the high prices of local limes instead of the cheaper imports...mark my words...
banker 10 years, 6 months ago
I like the exact figures. No one knows how many lime trees are coming. Is it one thousand as Alfred Gray says, or is it 3, or 4, or 5 thousand as Christie puts it in a precise number? He was also precise about the date of the citrus canker. It was either in 2003 or 2004. What's 365 days or up to 4,000 lime trees in numerical difference among friends? Can't the brain-dead Prime Minister count?
The truth is that we are paying for 5,000, getting 1,000 and the rest of the money is going into Gray's closet for his driver to steal.
In the meantime, never mind that the money could have been used for mortgage relief, more policemen, better Information Technology to collect taxes or to modernise the civil service. Those are all wastes of money. We need limes dammit!
Don't you think that the money could have been used to re-stabilise the production of the Eleuthera pineapple which is a renewable resource that can be exported? Or perhaps, as on Tribune reader suggested, if the government put three fruit trees on all government subdivisions built, then crime would go down and the country would be beautified. Instead, we are going to kill those 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 lime trees like that imbecile Gray killed the cascarilla trees that they tried to transplant to Andros. What a bunch of idiot amateurs. They couldn't run the snot out of a nose if they had cold -- never mind a government.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!
These people have to go...all the issues facing us and they spend a million on lime trees? Is this the agricultural institute or not? Plant some seeds, fertilize them, water them, reap them....what is going on in his head??? The building even eehn up yet...you gat plenty time for them to grow
Who getting what out of this? Right now they probably want to knock him side his head for letting the cat out the bag. If he hadn't run his mouth as usual, who would have known?
How many potcakes are we importing next week to clean up the stray cats?
nassaudaddy 10 years, 6 months ago
I don't know why the clowns stay in town when the circus has left long ago.. Alfred Gray is the biggest thief of all and for the life of me i can't figure why these stupid people keep putting him back where he can make some ignorant decisions, and pad his back pocket. The police should have locked him up when they caught him in the church yard screwing around with the other mans wife. He's no good and he's a natural thief and i'm sure if the allow him he'll build a 200 million dollar university on Mayaguana or Inagua so that they can fund his 200 foot luxury yacht
newcitizen 10 years, 6 months ago
Does the government not know how to stop spending money? This is out of control. It's just another chance to pocket some money in some sort of kickback scam. There is really no other explanation for it. It's lunacy!
BahamianAway 10 years, 6 months ago
SMH!!! This cannot be a country in debt. We buying lime trees...clearly we got money to burn.
jt 10 years, 6 months ago
Okay, here's the thing. California has a Mediterranean climate, tailored to lemons, which they grow. Limes flourish in subtropical, humid climates - like South Florida, Mexico and the Bahamas. Any lime variety best suited to California would probably be a terrible choice for the Bahamas.
lionfish 10 years, 6 months ago
Fox Hill Nursery has lime trees for sale at $25. Do the math- the government could get 40,000 trees for one million dollars!! Or they could have gotten the 1,000 trees for $25,000 (and probably gotten a discount for the large order) and saved the treasury $975,000. What happened to put Bahamians first???
newcitizen 10 years, 6 months ago
This clearly shows that somebody is just putting money in their pockets. Typical of our governments.
asiseeit 10 years, 6 months ago
These guys are just not that smart, they prove this to the Bahamian people daily. Now on the other hand, the Bahamian people look pretty ignorant as well because 40 odd percent of them voted to bring these clowns back to power. Now on the other hand maybe V and his boys are smart because they are raping and pillaging the Bahamas at will and there has been no major uproar. Are the Bahamian people just Dumb, Maybe! Stupid is as stupid does, run Forrest.
jt 10 years, 6 months ago
Say it is 3,000 trees. That's $333 per tree. Also, our native key limes (not the Persian limes sold in food stores) come true from seed. Nobody needed to buy anything at all...just plant some seeds and wait. Or better yet, grow some delicious sour oranges!
Agriculture4Scheme 10 years, 6 months ago
I agree with you all. However lets look at everything Minister Gray is doing totally wrong as he tries to contribute to Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI)- which means "ass" in most of the Caribbean Island.
Minister Gray attempted to bring cascarilla trees from Acklins just the other day. He failed, the trees died and were never shipped to the so called BAMSI in North Andros, then just recently the Morrocco government donated $500,000 worth of inorganic fertilizer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Fred Mitchell, Minister Gray was there to receive those which were shipped to BAMSI in North Andros.
However, BAMSI has no plants in high volume to be treated with unsafe inorganic fertilizers, so the fertilisers are just sitting around and now once again Minister Gray is not DECIDING bring in lime plants which really serves no purpose to BAMSI.
People, they say this BAMSI in North Andros will open in September 2014, however one commenter said no building have been constructed, its true. Photos were sent to me via email and all they are doing is stealing monies from Public funds and fooling us (The Bahamian people)
Also, a few weeks ago, I heard this Mr. Omer Thomas on Darrold Miller. Apparently, he is a Jamaican national in charge of developing Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute in North Andros.
People all around are saying this man is a fraud and thief because he's doing nothing. That;s why they say the SCHOOL and FARM will not open in September 2014. There will be some excuse to why the SCHOOL and FARM will not be operational.
Many people researched him in google search engine and this man is a FAKE! He claims to be DR. Omer Thomas but in the Jamaican Gleaner and other Jamaican press, he's actually Mr. Omer Thomas. His qualifications are all questionable
Everyone, type his name (Dr. Omer Thomas) in google search engine and see the truth. Besides that, this present government knows about Thomas failures.
Where is Candia Dames, she should do an investigation on this so called Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) in North Andros.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago
Interesting...It's a project doomed to failure. The Bahamian business model "anyone can buy a few clothes and run a successful clothing store". I said to a friend just yesterday that I was 100% certain that every lime tree would be dead before the roof is on the building. Not putting mouth on the trees, but based on the frantic and UNCOORDINATED buying activity of the project manager, I'm certain they have not given one second to the long term maintenance of such a large grove. Probably had a 7x7 garden in their backyard and figured they qualify as a farmer.
bcitizen 10 years, 6 months ago
I have some experience doing this same thing in the Bahamas and for 5000 trees this is what I estimate to get them to maturity and I have been very generous with these figures.
Trees 5000 $25.00 a tree $125,000.00 Land Prep $6,000.00 per 1000 $30,000.00 Irrigation $4,000.00 per 1000 $20,000.00 Ongoing Maintenance for $262,500.00 for 3-4 years to get trees mature
jt 10 years, 6 months ago
As for the whole cascarilla thing, has anyone in Acklins ever considered propagating the trees instead of perpetually wounding them in nature?
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