Post Hurricane Maria: Agricultural Stakeholders Plan Future of OECS Sub-regional Trade

OECS Media Release

Three weeks after the passage of Hurricane Maria, the devastating effects of the category 5 storm on Dominica’s agricultural sector are already being felt in the sub region.

The OECS Commission in collaboration with the Governments of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda met on Saturday, September 30, 2017 to discuss how the OECS region can support traders and farmers of agricultural produce at this important time.  

As a major supplier of agricultural commodities to the Leeward Islands, the Commonwealth of Dominica’s incapacity to supply sub-regional markets has left a noticeable void.

The meeting concluded that, in the interim, Dominica’s traders would be facilitated by the southern Caribbean islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Grenada to source agricultural commodities to supply the markets of the Leeward Islands, British Virgin Islands and US Virgin Islands.

Minister of Agriculture in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Hon. Saboto Caesar, noted the need for southern Caribbean islands to significantly increase production to meet the demand of these new markets. 

Honourable Arthur Nibbs, Minister of Agriculture in Antigua and Barbuda, thanked the OECS Commission for such an important and much-needed intervention.

“This response is very timely, given the recent call from the Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda for increases in suppliers of agricultural commodities in the Windwards.”

OECS Communications Unit

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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About The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance among independent and non-independent countries in the Eastern Caribbean. The OECS came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean countries signed a treaty agreeing to cooperate with each other while promoting unity and solidarity among its Members. The Treaty became known as the Treaty of Basseterre, so named in honour of the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis where it was signed. The OECS today, currently has eleven members, spread across the Eastern Caribbean comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

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