Prime Minister Philip 'Brave' Davis. Photo: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff
IN a meeting with stakeholders yesterday, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis indicated his administration’s “readiness to make critical policy interventions” to offset rising costs brought on by global inflation.
This is according to a press release from the Office of the Prime Minister.
It was released after Mr Davis, along with senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Consumer Protection Commission, Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation, and the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute, met with stakeholders in the shipping, wholesale, retail, and petroleum industries to discuss rising costs caused by global inflation.
According to the release, Mr Davis underscored his government’s “commitment to growing the economy and finding ways to keep prices low for Bahamians” during this period.
Mr Davis spoke of “the government’s readiness to make critical policy interventions to offset rising costs to the industries to benefit Bahamian consumers.”
“The Davis administration welcomed the industries’ willingness to support local farmers in buying locally,” the release noted. “The Prime Minister indicated his (administration’s) policy to strengthen the agricultural industry’s capacity through BAIC and BAMSI to address the growing levels of inflation.
“The Prime Minister conveyed that this is an all-hands-on-deck exercise to protect Bahamian families during these difficult economic times. The Davis administration understands the importance of consulting with industry partners to ensure the government responds adequately to the Bahamian people’s challenges,” the release said.
Speaking in the House of Assembly last night about the issue, Mr Davis said until the country can sustainably feed itself, it will be at the mercy of global tradewinds.
“Our country remains challenged by this inflationary period,” Mr Davis said. “Rising shipping and fuel costs, the breakdown of the global supply chain, and other economic and logistical challenges have exposed a core vulnerability in our national development model. Without the ability to contribute in a meaningful way to feeding our people, we are entirely at the mercy of global trade winds when importing food into our country.
“As these costs have risen internationally, Bahamians have seen prices rise locally. What’s even scarier than the costs of being dependent on international forces beyond our control is that the supply itself is dependent. Should an international crisis ever occur that delivers a crippling shock to the global shipping industry, we would be hard-pressed to bring in enough food to feed our nation over the short-to-medium term.
“While this is an extreme scenario, we live through a revolutionary method right now in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we emerge from this pandemic, we must take lessons away from this crisis to mitigate the impact of future problems should they occur.
“The lessons of price inflation and supply issues have shown us that the time for talk to grow our food is over. This is a time for action. The role of BAMSI, BAIC, and the Ministry of Agriculture must be to advance domestic industries to fill the gaps for bringing Bahamian grown produce to market to offset the cost to Bahamian consumers. This means that we must find sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective ways to get this done so that our products can be competitive in the local market, both at a cost and quality level. Government policies and funding priorities will go a long way towards realising this reality.”
Comments
moncurcool 2 years, 9 months ago
The first way the government can bring down the prices is eliminate VAT.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
That will never happen because Davis and his 'wife', not to mention Fweddy Boy Mitchell, love lavishly partying with a huge entourage of their friends in far flung places like Dubai. And all at the taxyers' great expense!
moncurcool 2 years, 9 months ago
I know it never will.
Just saying that if these political misfits really want change they need to start where change happens and stop spewing hot air
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
Davis blowing plenty hot air here.
Our corrupt and most cruel politicians of both the PLP and FNM persuasion have always taxed to the max the very things most of us cannot do without in our lives, and food is right up there at the top of the list of the most heavily taxed items. They have done so to get the tax revenues they need to pay for and continue growing the grossly over-bloated and unproductive civil workforce they have created.
Without a shadow of doubt our elected officials are the most cruel people in our country today. No matter what, they will continue taxing food to the max so that they can continue handing out government jobs, government promotions, government benefits, government allowances, etc. to their perceived supporters, many of whom will soon find that they too can no longer afford meats, vegetables and fruits.
With the stroke of a pen the Davis and Cooper led PLP administration could significantly drive down the cost of food simply by lowering the more than 35 cents in taxes that government effectively takes on each and every dollar we spend on food today. But you can be rest assured this will never happen no matter what cruel Davis may promise.
moncurcool 2 years, 9 months ago
The could do a similar thing with fuel costs.
But won't hold my breathe for that.
bahamianson 2 years, 9 months ago
You will intervene? What, increase Real Property Tàx?
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
And national insurance contribution rates to boot! Mark my word.
M0J0 2 years, 9 months ago
lol we owe too much to go vat less. Its sad though only persons to have a pocket increase is the politicians. We get smaller as they get fatter.
LastManStanding 2 years, 9 months ago
The really sad part is that they will all up and leave to the US the minute that they finish running this country into the ground. The Bahamian public will have to live with the consequences of their stupid decisions while they get off scot-free living the high life abroad.
LastManStanding 2 years, 9 months ago
The Bahamas is never going to able to produce enough food to feed itself, there is simply not enough arable land to do so. On top of that, the soil quality is not the best, which means expensive fertilizers will need to be bought in order to have high yields. Farming is not a profitable business, even in areas like the Great Plains, which puts into question whether growing anything of value here is even economically feasible (its probably not). Farming is also extremely labour intensive; where is the cheap labour willing to work 12 hour days going to come from? I think we all know the answer to that, and it is a big reason why Abaco is a foreign colony today.
Emilio26 2 years, 9 months ago
LastManStanding you made an argument that there isn't enough arable land to farm which is a lie because if you take Nassau out of equation the other major family islands like Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera, Exuma,Long Island & Cat Island has more than enough land to sustain large scale farming and another argument you mentioned was the issue with labor and the long hours it takes to farm but in case you didn't know there is farming machinery now that replaced manual labor decades ago in terms of growing crops and raising farm animals on a large scale.
LastManStanding 2 years, 9 months ago
Emilio26,
Please let me know what crops you are going to grow in the marshes of Andros, I will wait on your answer. Also, I do not think you understand that we are a country of well over 400k (probably even 450k) people. Do you have any idea of how much food is required to feed that amount of people? I thought so. Also, you would know the history of citrus farming on Abaco (and how it caused the deluge of Haitian invaders there today) if you had done your homework before posting. You also have no idea how much farming machinery costs, and where Bahamian farmers would find money to purchase or maintain it. Judging by your comment on manual labour, you have never been on a farm in your life. Get some real world experience before making asinine assumptions.
Emilio26 2 years, 9 months ago
LastManStanding well we're a country that likes to impress the white tourist and foreign investors that come here to get a piece of the pie so why can't our farmers form business partnerships with some of these foreign investors that way they can have access to funding so that way they can acquire the tools and machinery they need to able to farm.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
ZZZZZzzzzzz.......
bahamianson 2 years, 9 months ago
Money, money, money, money, money.
SP 2 years, 9 months ago
In the 80's Jamaica banned most food imports forcing themselves to produce more food. Today Jamaica is exporting food. Around the same time, the Dominican Republic set plans in place to encourage and integrate local production of anything into the tourism industry. Today The Dominican Republic is the #1 destination in the region.
What were successive Bahamian governments doing while our competitors prepared for challenging times? Obviously, they learned nothing from the Jamaican and Dominican Republic!
I have 0% FAITH the PLP and FNM are remotely capable of changing their modus operandi after 50 years of absolute asinine political stupidity that lead our country and people from the most envious position in the region to the crime-ridden, high unemployment position we now find ourselves.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
The single most important and painful lesson we've learned since the late 1960s is that lawyers, doctors and accountants are the last people on the planet who should ever be allowed to govern a small nation like ours. Very few of them have an ounce of common sense let alone business sense.
Bonefishpete 2 years, 9 months ago
So they going to open up Hatchet Bay? When you import all.your food from a foreign country these things happen
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