Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, James Paul, is hoping governmental measures to tighten controls on the importation of onions come into effect soon.
“I know that farmers are still today having challenges in terms of marketing the onions, so I think that whatever is intended to be done hopefully will be done soon because the reality is that they are competing with an imported commodity on the market that should not have been allowed to be brought in. This is a situation that must be dealt with soon. And there are farmers who are going to be coming in with more onions soon because the onion season doesn’t finish until around June or so,” Paul said.
The BAS head acknowledged that Minister of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security Indar Weir said he had intervened to protect the interest of local farmers who are now facing competition from imported onions and are finding it difficult to get buyers who were going after the cheaper, imported product.
Source: barbadostoday.bb