BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Agriculture Department on St. Kitts is pushing for farmers to be more cognisant of food preservation, as they have several walk-in freezers that go underutilized.
Director of Agriculture Melvin James, during an exclusive interview, told SKNVibes that his Department does store excess produce in its “cool storage facility” on a short term basis, but stressed that it is currently “underutilised”.
He stated that there are four walk-in cool chills on St. Kitts; three at the Department and one at the market.
“The storage facilities do have some reasonable capacity and, in fact, right now it is underutilised. So if the farmers have excess stuff, they do take them there but.”
The facilities, which are opened free of cost to farmers, are being used as a launching pad for plans that the Department has for exportation.
According to James, they are hoping and expecting the farmers to make more use of the storage facilities, because the Department has an eye on the OECS market trade.
He disclosed that the OECS recently purchased several boats that could transport produce around the sub-region, “and now we are trying to get in on that”.
He however noted that without adequate produce in store or in supply, they are not going to attain that goal.
“I think the trade has already started in the Southern Caribbean; in the Windward Islands with boats going to Trinidad and so on. We are also offering our produce like pumpkins, squash, cucumbers and things like those, and the storage facilities do come in handy for that.”
Even though the Department wants to have more produce in store, the officials did not outline what they specifically want to have in full capacity.
The Director reminded that there are some produce that could be stored together, while there are others that could not.
Meanwhile, James explained that the Department of Agriculture has a structured approach in dealing with issues and business relating to the sector.
He told this media house that the Department focuses its attention on production but most of the “preservation and processing are done through the Agro-processing Unit”.
“I think that processing is a form of preservation, but most of the detailed work involved in preservation comes from co-ops. We have a lot of those groups and they are the ones who do a lot of value-added; and that is the main form of preservation, except if we think about multiplying the gene pool.”
Speaking to the co-ops and preservation, James indicated that their produce would come through transformation and processing for the end products.
