Ministry working on initiative to ease woes of traffickers

THE Ministry of Agriculture is working on an initiative that will more favourably position Vincentians who traffick goods to Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

TRAFFICKERS AT THE GEEST SHED in Kingstown preparing their goods for shipment. (fp)

These traffickers have been “somewhat disadvantaged” since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar said this week on radio.

Caesar said he had recently held talks in Trinidad and Tobago with private sector representatives with a view to stabilizing the regional trade for our traffickers.

The Minister told listeners to NBC Radio on Wednesday July 13 that government is seeking to put an “organized system” in place for continued trade between St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, as the unavailability and scarcity of flights and high cost of accommodation are making it difficult for Vincentian traffickers to trade effectively and profitably.

Travel to these neighbouring islands was interrupted when restrictions were put in place in the height of the pandemic.

Local traffickers were no longer able to accompany their goods to these islands; the produce had to be sent to third parties who would sell the items on the traffickers’ behalf.

The minister said traffickers had no longer been able to be present “to see their justice.”

With some travel restrictions now being removed, traffickers are finding that their difficulties continue especially in relation to more expensive and less frequent flights to Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

“That is one of the most critical issues affecting the rural economy today,” Caesar said on Wednesday.

He explained that given the challenges faced by our traffickers, government has to do something.

“We can’t pay every trafficker passage to go to Trinidad…so what we started to do already, is that we are having conversations with the private sector in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, to create what can be developed into two terminal markets.”

The minister said this would “create a more stable environment for trade to take place.”

“So that when we export the goods, instead of it going to 50 or 60 different persons, and you can’t really manage the process of return of the money, we can have it channelled and streamlined.”

The Agriculture Minister noted that if the problem is not solved, there will be negative consequences.

“You are going to have late remittances of payments going to the traffickers; traffickers will pay the farmers later”, and traffickers will have no negotiating power.

“They will have to take what they get,” the minister stated.