The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) is aiming to invest $7m in a series of “greenhouse parks” designed to cut imports of vegetable staples by 30 percent.

Senator Tyrel Young, the Institute’s executive chairman, told Tribune Business the investment is a key element in efforts to “plant the seeds” for the revival of Bahamian agriculture by facilitating and empowering local farmers via the provision of technology and raw materials.

Explaining that BAMSI was targeting “the low hanging fruit”, in terms of focusing on market niches where Bahamian farmers can oust imports and seize significant market share, he added that besides vegetable crops it is also focused on driving this nation to full self-sufficiency in egg production by 2025.

Although local producers presently have “less than 1 percent” share of the Bahamian egg market, Senator Young described the near-total reversal of this position as “very achievable” with BAMSI itself in the process of establishing its own North Andros poultry farm capable of supplying between 1.4m to 1.5m eggs per year.

Reiterating that BAMSI’s goal is not to compete with private sector farmers, he added that the Institute will “scale down” its own commercial production and “let them take over the market” when their output becomes sufficient to meet demand. At present, with domestic producers unable to meet these needs, Mr Young said BAMSI would seek to fill this output gap itself.

He added that, “if we continue to push as we are doing now”, slashing The Bahamas’ estimated $1bn annual food import bill by between 30-40 percent come 2030 remains a goal within reach as the country seeks to enhance food security following the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

Tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, cabbages and lettuce are among the vegetables being targeted by the greenhouse project, which Mr Young said BAMSI hopes to launch in at least two islands before year-end 2022. “We’re creating parks across The Bahamas that we populate with greenhouses,” Mr Young told this newspaper. “The intended launch will be on five islands, with one on each island.

“As orders [of greenhouses] come in we will populate those parks. We’re looking at Eleuthera, Long Island, Cat Island, Exuma and North Andros. We’re looking at launching at least two before the end of the year. They just landed this week. We’re hoping between Long Island, Eleuthera and Cat Island, most likely those will be the first to be launched.”

Site preparation for the commercial greenhouses, which are 200 feet long by 50 feet wide, will take time and is “very tedious”, Mr Young conceded, adding that BAMSI has been working on the initiative since January/February 2022. “It will tackle some of the disadvantages some of our farmers have now,” he explained. “The main thing is crop scheduling, because everything is grown in season in The Bahamas.

“You normally have a glut of crops coming in at one time, and the rest of the year there is a drag on those particular items. The wholesalers have to import out-of-season crops. The main focus on this is to cut down the food import bill and, by being able to grow year-round in those greenhouses, it will allow the farmers to do proper projections. That will allow time and pre-orders from local wholesalers to farmers as they will know what is available and when.”

To use the greenhouses, farmers will have to be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs as well as undergo a “short training course” on growing crops in such facilities. “We’re focusing on the top ten crops on the market here in The Bahamas,” Mr Young said, pointing to onions, sweet peppers, tomatoes and the like.

“For the crop section, we’re looking at cutting down in another three to five years at least 30 percent of the imports of these crops. Over the short to medium-term, 30 percent is our goal and, long-term, some items we’re hoping to become self-sufficient in.”

Mr Young listed temperature control, and protection from the hot Bahamian summer, as well as water consumption and “land efficiency” as just some of the benefits the greenhouses will afford farmers. He added that the equivalent of what five acres is needed to produce could be grown in the much smaller greenhouses via their controlled environment.

Disclosing that the first order of commercial greenhouses had cost $330,000, with an additional $100,000 required for the site preparation and construction phase, the BAMSI chairman said orders for a second shipment have already been placed and will arrive by early 2023 at latest.

“We’re mixing the sizes and trying different types in the next order. The order has already been placed and will arrive in late December or the early part of next year. The shipping logistics, we cannot control,” Mr Young told Tribune Business.

“We’re looking at providing around ten per park. In terms of the greenhouses, over the next four years - in a five-year period - I am suggesting that base on the budget we have we’re looking at about a $7m investment over the next five years.”

He said BAMSI’s strategy was to start small and build from there by empowering farmers to supply local communities on each island with all their fruit and vegetable needs. And, as their businesses develop and expand, they will produce the quality and quantity needed to interest Nassau-based food wholesalers and distributors.

“One of the main things we’re trying to do, and why we want to spread them [greenhouses] through the islands, is because we know getting fruits and vegetables to these islands is not only costly but because of the lack of accommodation on the mail boats with refrigeration units, a lot of crop gets in in poor condition “ Mr Young explained.

“We will cut down on the cost, and allow farmers to supply their own communities. Their crops are purchased by locals and consumed by locals in the community. The goal is to have those greenhouses and whatever crops they produce, they make their communities self-sufficient. It empowers the people and makes it less Nassau-centric and having to rely on the wholesalers.

“It also cuts down on the imports. Soon I foresee those greenhouses and farmers who operate them supplying a lot of wholesalers in The Bahamas.” The greenhouses, too, will not only be used for crop production but also poultry and eggs.

“The layering programme is a programme we are fully endorsing and pushing through the Ministry of Agriculture,” Mr Young told Tribune Business. “By 2025 we are looking to become self-sufficient in eggs across the entire Bahamas. We are setting up a commercial chicken farm in our farm in North Andros.

“Poultry imports are $30m per annum. Eggs are a huge portion of that, so we are hoping that when we get going we can cut that bill by $10m. We’re looking at about 1.4m to 1.5m eggs per year. One hundred and twenty thousand dozens per annum. That’s just from BAMSI. Imagine if we could get four more facilities of the same size or greater around The Bahamas. We should be self-sufficient in eggs by 2025.”