The Tribune

• Food ‘realities are striking’ on Cat Island

• ‘Special kind of love’ needed on Out Isl.

• PM: Gov’t ‘failed’ San Sal on Club Med

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cat Island entrepreneur yesterday revealed her “shock” when she discovered a local grocery store was selling lettuce for $15, saying: “The realities are striking.”

Nikita Shiel-Rolle, proprietor of the Cat Island Mermaid and Ocean Soul Farm, told the Cat Island Business Outlook conference that her experience further highlighted the need for The Bahamas to improve its food security and sovereignty as well as the extent to which inflationary pressures are much greater on the Family Islands than in Nassau.

“The other day I was really shocked when I went into the grocery store and lettuce was $15. It was regular Romaine lettuce,” she disclosed. “This is where the realities are striking. We are dealing with food insecurity. How do we develop food sovereignty?”

Such concerns had partially motivated her to create Ocean Soul Farm, a hydroponic start-up that aims to grow the fruits and vegetables “that most Cat Islanders cannot afford to purchase” and help make it possible for those living in Nassau to return home.

Delving deeper into Bahamian food security, an issue that continues to gain traction following the COVID-19 pandemic and now soaring price increases driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supply chain shortages, Ms Shiel-Rolle said this nation first had to define what the topic meant.

Asking whether it was “OK” for Cat Islanders to subsist on a diet of tuna and/or corn beef and grits, she added that the deeper questions revolved around health concerns and whether residents have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, if all do, and whether they can afford to purchase them.

The $15 price for Romaine lettuce further exposes the deepening cost of living crisis faced by many Bahamians, which is being driven by external forces and events this nation has no control over given its propensity to import virtually all it consumes. The impact is far greater on the Family Islands, due to the extra transportation and logistics costs incurred in delivering food and other products, as well as the absence of economies of scale due to smaller populations.

Ms Shiel-Rolle said such challenges underscored “why so many people don’t stay in Cat Island” but migrated to New Providence and further afield in search of work, adding: “It requires a special kind of love.” She reiterated that Cat Island and, by extension, the rest of The Bahamas must focus on creating “real economic opportunities to move out of crisis mode, move out of poverty, into a state of thriving”.

Noting that “how we respond to our changing climate is at the heart of our future”, Ms Shiel-Rolle said “one of the big drivers” for the Cat Island Conservation Institute is to have its own research vessel that can also be equipped with hospital and medical facilities delivering care up and down the length of the island.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, addressing the same conference yesterday, said the Government had “failed” his San Salvador constituents by failing to provide sufficient quality healthcare facilities that may have encouraged Club Med not to shutter the island’s ‘anchor resort’ when COVID-19 struck.

“We must learn from the painful lessons of the past. The Government did provide a suitable airport to facilitate the requisite airlift into San Salvador to support the anchor resort there, Club Med,” Philip Davis QC said.

“Regrettably, the Government fell down in its public obligations, and failed the people of San Salvador in its inability to complete the construction of - and open - a suitable healthcare facility on San Salvador, especially as COVID became an increasingly formidable existential public health threat.

“The result was the closure of the hotel because the owners and operators could not be assured by the Government of prompt and timely access to proper health services, should any of their staff or guest fall ill.”

Pledging that his administration plans to embark on an “aggressive” infrastructure development programme featuring public-private partnerships (PPPs), involving private sector developers and capital, Mr Davis added: “As we plan and strategise, fellow delegates, we must not allow weighty political considerations to become a stumbling block to progress and growth to the detriment of our people and their livelihoods.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, former minister of tourism under the Minnis administration, previously admitted that the then-government had a “difficult mountain to climb” to persuade Club Med to re-open before 2022 due to San Salvador’s limited airlift and healthcare capacity.

“It’s devastating for the economy of San Salvador for it to be that long,” Mr D’Aguilar said of the two-year closure that is set to end this October. “That’s a very special situation given the fact the whole property’s focus is on the European market. It’s a bit different. Most of our Family Island properties are very American-centric, and it’s so much easier and closer to come up with a ‘Plan B’.

“If you’re an American in the Out Islands it’s much easier to get home if you fall sick even though it has to be by private plane. Most people if they’re ill want to go back home, but if you’re coming from France and Italy, which is the greatest source of visitors to Club Med, it’s a long way away. You can’t put them on a commercial plane, and you can’t put them in our healthcare system as challenged as it is.”

Mr D’Aguilar confirmed that the main fears behind Club Med’s decision were the inability of San Salvador’s healthcare facilities to cope with a major COVID-19 outbreak, which was “compounded with the lack of international airlift” given that the resort operated just one flight per week in and out of the island from France.

“That was not considered sufficient,” he added. “They’re working their way through all the resorts in terms of what are the safest locations to open, given that there are not sufficient healthcare facilities on the island, given that there was no robust trans-Atlantic or international airlift, it reached that point where it ranked low in all their resorts in terms of opening.

“There wasn’t much the Government of The Bahamas could have done in terms of removing those significant obstacles. They [Club Med] would wish for a scenario where COVID-19 is mitigated substantially, receded substantially or a vaccine is in place, would be my guess, before they go to a small remote location.”