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Geest to liquidate; farmers in 'ultimate squeeze'
Geest Bananas' announcement that it intends to seek liquidation - allegedly a ploy to facilitate a buyout by Fyffes for £50 million or less - has caused the government and banana companies in St. Lucia to attempt to unite forces in a grim bid to rescue the island's main agricultural export sector. At the same time however, internal disagreements continue to threaten local banana production, most notably in the field of pest control, while minister of Agriculture Cass Elias, also blames other Windward islands for obstructing St. Lucia's attempts to restructure the Windward Islands Banana Exporting and Developing Company (WIBDECO). This opposition from the other three islands, Elias maintains, is "one of the problems of the industry".
Recently, Geest Bananas announced a reduction in banana prices paid to farmers of 15 cents per pound, or 1.5 pounds sterling per box. The St. Lucia Banana Company (SLBC), the island's largest banana company, rejects this move, saying that it does not reflect supermarket prices, which according to the SLBC, have remained unchanged. Because of Geest's drop in prices, the SLBC and other banana companies have in turn been forced to lower their payments to farmers. Banana companies on the other banana-producing Windward Islands, however, have opted to somehow absorb the price difference, so that farmers continue to receive the same payments. This difference has increased the regional rift, writes The Star. The government of St. Lucia supports the local companies in rejecting Geest's price reduction. Worse yet, in a recent meeting with Agriculture minister Elias, Geest informed the government of St. Lucia that it is likely to go into liquidation, because of alleged cash flow problems. According to a statement released by Geest on Tuesday, the main reason for the cash flow problems has been the recently uncovered US$120 million license fraud on the European market [search news archives]. But minister Elias dismisses Geest's problems saying that he and his government have not taken kindly to the company's stated intention to go into liquidation. Elias is quoted in The Star, Crusader and the Tuesday Voice as saying that Geest has paid dividends for the past three years amounting to approximately £7 million and not long ago they paid a one million dollar bonus to farmers and at the same time admitting that it still has over 14 million pounds sterling in reserve. "We therefore find it difficult that the company should be contemplating liquidation because there is a crisis in the industry that can be resolved by forward planning and by repositioning the company, in other words, there are lots of options which have not yet been explored by Geest", said Elias.
Geest had recently appealed to the government of St. Lucia to allow the use of Stabex funds to recapitalise and refinance Geest's operations. The government has refused to allow this. The suspicion amongst government and local banana company officials is that Geest Bananas wants to go into liquidation as a ploy to enable Fyffes to buy it over cheaply, "to the destruction of the Windward Islands' banana farmers", writes The Crusader. According to this paper, minister Elias stated that the government of St. Lucia "will resist this move". The Star explains that whereas currently Fyffes and WIBDECO together own Geest Bananas, the liquidation of this company "could pave the road for Fyffes to be in control with farmers forfeiting the money they invested in the joint venture company".
According to The Crusader, Elias stated that "nothing will negate the strategic and timely effect of the banana industry on the economy of the island while he is in office".
Elias was one of the speakers at a meeting last Monday at the Green Parrot Hotel, to launch the SLBC Fruit Quality Competition. Also addressing the meeting was SLBC executive chairman Patrick Joseph. He lamented the fact that Geest and others have successfully managed to 'divide and rule' the local banana industry. "It is definitely a pity that we tend to pretend that everything is all right. It's because we always grab the blade and someone else always has the handle. We are never going to have the handle unless we can do something about the man holding the handle. Everything that can be done to make sure that we never come together has been done, is being done, and will continue to be done". The Crusader reports this.
A WIBDECO board meeting will be held this Thursday and Friday in Grenada, and the conflicting attitudes of St. Lucia and the other three Windward Islands towards WIBDECO are expected to feature high on the agenda, alongside the announced liquidation of Geest Bananas.
Despite being united in their opposition to Geest's latest move, the government of St. Lucia and the SLBC continue to differ on the increasingly urgent matter of banana leaf spot control. Until recently, the SLBC assumed responsibility for the ground and aerial spraying of banana fields islandwide, for which a levy of 2.96 cents per pound of bananas was charged in 1999. Conflicts between the banana companies about the amount of money SLBC ought to be paid for its pest control service resulted in banana companies calling on government to take responsibility for pest control, under the Plant Protection Act. Government put this job out to tender, legislating that 3 cents per pound of bananas would be the levy to be paid. The SLBC was subsequently awarded the contracts for ground and aerial spraying but asked to be paid 4.5 cents per pound. Thus, the government has been unable to sign the contract, and negotiations have returned to the drawing board. But, reports the Tuesday Voice, "A decision will have to be made soon or else farmers will have no choice but to watch helplessly while their fields are destroyed".
The Voice editor added his opinion: "Low prices on the one hand; higher production costs on the other; the threat of losing it all through disease hanging over his head. Our banana farmer is in the grip of the ultimate squeeze".
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Last Diamond stubbed out as factory closes
Producer of the locally manufactured Diamond cigarettes, N.Y. Daher (St. Lucia) Ltd., has found itself forced to shut down operations. The company has produced cigarettes in St. Lucia for the past 52 years. According to a press release in The Voice and Mirror, the company was faced with "a number of factors that affected the viability of the company". For the better part of its existence, N.Y. Daher employed forty-five workers, but due to retirements, automation and declining market share, this number had dropped to eleven at the time of closure. According to N.Y. Daher, "It is with a sense of sadness that we are forced to adopt this prudent action of exiting the manufacturing community after fifty-two years of involvement and participation".
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'Stop treating private sector as bastard child'
The government is treating the Chamber of Commerce as a 'bastard child', Chamber president Lindford Fevrier told reporters this week. The Chamber has released a remarkably candid statement to the press in which it asks government to stop portraying St. Lucia's local private sector as suffering from a "syndrome of dependency".
"The scathing attack on the local private sector that has and continues to provide jobs, income, tax revenues, duty and other charges to fill Government's coffers, is unwarranted and unfortunate", writes the Chamber. The statement is signed by Fevrier and printed in its entirety in The Mirror. "This same private sector is often described as and asked to play the role of 'engine of growth', a vacuous statement as exposed by the offensive comments now being made by the Government. The same local private sector is expected to continue to make donations to all worthwhile and needy charitable groups and Non-Governmental Organizations and now, even Government. ... Yet the private sector is accused of suffering from 'an epidemic of dependency'." The allegations of dependency were apparently made by government officials after local businesses requested certain incentives "that for years had been made available to foreign investors". This, according to The Mirror. The Chamber says it wants to address "the paradoxical system that exists in our country", whereby foreign investors receive incentives "that the local private sector could only dream of".
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Assistant Commissioner under investigation
Assistant Police Commissioner Hermangild Francis has allegedly been accused of spousal abuse. This is reported in the Thursday Voice. Neither Police Commissioner Francis Nelson nor his deputy Neil Parker, wished to comment on the issue, but Hermangild Francis himself confirmed that he is being investigated by Parker but claims not to know "what the investigation is all about since Parker has never spoken to him about the matter". Francis, who according to The Voice continues to be at his desk at the Criminal Investigation Department, says he intends to sue the Police Force. He is being represented by lawyers Marcus Foster and Alberton Richelieu. Francis told The Voice that he wants the investigation to be "above board" since, he says, it is "a smear campaign against him". Francis could be the successor to commissioner Nelson, who is due to retire soon.
According to the Wednesday Star and last week's One Caribbean, Hermangild Francis' name has in the past been connected with instances of police brutality but this has never been proven in a court of law. Moreover, as recently as April of this year, Francis publicly announced in relation to incidents of police brutality, that "As long as I am Assistant Commissioner and there are excesses and I find out that there is truth to it, I will take action against that particular officer". Francis made this statement on the HTS evening news.
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Praslin farmers open seamoss processing facility
With financial support from the Poverty Reduction Fund ($30,000) and the voluntary input of its members where technical and labour requirements were involved, the Praslin Seamoss Farmers Association recently managed to establish its own processing facility. Once the public health department finalises its approval, the processing facility will become operational. It is expected that seamoss processing will provide a number of additional jobs for people from the area. The Crusader and Voice both report this.
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Positive response for UWP leadership challenger
Lorraine Williams, the former attorney-general and minister of Women's Affairs, says that she has had an overwhelmingly positive response to her announcement that she is ready to make a bid for the leadership of the United Workers Party (UWP), currently led by Dr. Vaughan Lewis [see last week's news]. Lewis, who works and resides in Jamaica, has been widely criticised for not providing sufficiently active opposition to the current St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) administration. In an interview in The Crusader this week, Lorraine Williams says her phone "has rung off the hook, people have stopped me, called me, encouraged me from all walks of life, from all around the country and that tells me something. I have tried to analyse that reaction and I say to myself that it is obvious that something was missing and it probably was someone to come and say listen, enough is enough, let us take this party somewhere. I'm not saying that I will not get opposition. I am not saying that everybody loves me but certainly the reaction towards me has been very favourable".
Williams says she has noticed that there is "disenchantment with the government" as well as "disenchantment with the UWP and somehow people want to see something happening in this country".
Williams is confident that if she were to head the UWP in the next elections (scheduled for 2002), the party will win. She makes much of the fact that, as a woman, she would be able to introduce "a new kind of politics", with "a different perspective". "I am hoping that if women come out and say enough is enough, we are tired of all that character assassination and mudslinging, the whole electoral process must change". Although clearly banking on the female vote, and saying that she believes that "the atmosphere, the whole consciousness about women has been built up sufficiently in this country" Williams emphasises that she does not intend to try and oust men from politics. "I'm saying that women have to be brought to the spotlight of politics and a critical mass of women must come in and make their contribution side by side with the men. I'm not asking for all women in politics. I'm asking for men and women equally responsible in the government of this country".
Yet Williams also maintains women have something extra to add to the political scene. "They have a contribution to make. They are as competent as the men. They are as bright as the men. They know even more maybe about men when it comes to social policy of the country because they are accustomed to it. As I said, they make the men. They rear men, so why shouldn't they take part in the policy of the country?"
Williams admits that she has her work cut out for her, with the UWP convention coming up soon, and knowing that ultimately, it is the delegates who decide who will lead the party, no matter how much national support she might have.
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Eagle Air ousted by Mountain Air
Local airline company Eagle Air Services, owned and operated by Ewart Hinkson, is sounding the alarm, saying his company will soon have to fold operations and dismiss staff as a result of the loss of its contract with Federal Express to US-owned Mountain Air Cargo. Mountain Air was recently granted a one-year license to operate a second aircraft in St. Lucia. Permission came from the Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB) with the consent of minister of Aviation, Menissa Rambally. Although special conditions were included in granting Mountain Air its one-year license, to the effect that local carriers (such as Eagle Air) must be given special consideration by both Federal Express and Mountain Air, this clause has proven to be without teeth. While Eagle Air's contract with Federal Express was not due to expire until February 2002, within weeks of the new license being granted to Mountain Air, Eagle Air received word from Federal Express to the effect that it would be cancelling this contract as of the 27th of August. Mountain Air is due to take over Eagle Air's Federal Express route from St. Lucia to Martinique and Dominica.. Upon first realising what was about to happen, Eagle Air owner Ewart Hinkson wrote to Aviation minister Rambally on 11th July. He attended a meeting with both the minister and the chairman of the ATLB on 20th July and following this, made his recommendations by fax on the 21st. Hinkson claims that he has not heard from the minister since, despite having tried to reach her several times. This is reported in The Star. Last Wednesday, Hinkson appeared on DBS show Newsmaker Live. According to The Star, "several irate callers" to the show "pledged support for Eagle Air's CEO Ewart Hinkson".
Following Wednesday's show, the ATLB on Thursday issued a statement to the press, explaining its position on the Mountain Air affair. The board explains that from 1994 to 1997, Mountain Air was the main carrier for FedEx in the South Caribbean. In 1997, due to a growing market, Eagle Air was recruited to specifically operate the Dominica and Martinique routes. "However", reads the ATLB's statement, "Mountain Air, anticipating growth and development of the business, has consistently over the last four years applied for a license to operate a second aircraft. FedEx had in the meantime been consistently hinting of its intention to rationalise its service with a view to streamlining operations. Eagle Air, for its part, had consistently been challenged to consider an upgrading of its aircraft with a view to remaining competitive". For four years, Aviation ministers denied Mountain Air a license for a second aircraft. This year, however, the ATLB and minister Rambally consented, albeit "mindful of the overriding possibility of St. Lucia and St. Lucians losing the overall business generated from FedEx' hub operation. This includes but is not limited to, loss of landing fees, loss of one dozen local jobs, and a disruption in the prompt and efficient delivery of service in St. Lucia". Because of these dangers, maintains the board, it had made the granting of Mountain Air's license conditional. As it turns out, these conditions have not been met by Mountain Air and FedEx. What the legal consequences are of this - if any - is not discussed by any of the newspapers reporting on the matter. According to The Mirror, Hinkson continues to wait for a response from the Aviation minister. The Star, in turn, compares Eagle Air's plight to that of HelenAir [search news archives]. The paper quotes HelenAir's CEO Arthur Neptune as saying: "We have expressed our full support to Eagle Air. It is clear the Kenny Anthony government has again bent the licensing rules to accommodate Mountain Air Cargo, in the same way it accommodated Butch Stewart's EC-Express. We have assured Mr Hinkson that we are ready to stand by him in any protest action he might undertake, including bringing activity at George Charles Airport to a standstill. The bottom line is that if Eagle Air is not accommodated the company will fold up. St. Lucians must start standing up for other St. Lucians in trouble. Once it was HelenAir that was fighting to survive... and we still are. Today it's Eagle Air. Who will it be tomorrow?"
The ATLB, in a closing remark, writes that it wishes to make clear that "it would today, if requested by a local operator, give favourable consideration to granting a similar or identical license to an indigenous company to perform the same functions [as Mountain Air]. It is to be hoped that Eagle Air would avail itself of this opportunity".
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Students in Cuba lay lifestyle debate to rest
The St. Lucia - Cuba Student Association has distanced itself from a debate that has kept newspapers and radio programmes busy over the past two weeks - the circumstances and lifestyles of St. Lucians studying in Cuba. Following a stabbing incident during a party organised by St. Lucian students in Cuba, a debate started between those who maintain that the St. Lucian students are subjected to degrading living circumstances in Cuba, on the one hand, and others who seem to feel instead that the St. Lucians are ungrateful for the scholarships provided for them, and instead prefer to 'fete' every Friday night. Minister of Foreign Affairs George Odlum, at a special meeting convened last Friday to discuss the alleged ingratitude of St. Lucian students, did blame the students to a certain extent. Odlum is quoted in the Wednesday Star as saying that it is one of his concerns "that St. Lucian students will contaminate the Cubans by their emphasis on clothes, types of food, rented cars... Some parents are to blame. They give [the students] credit cards when they go to Cuba. What impact is this having on the Cuban students who have a few pesos to handle when the St. Lucian student who is there at the mercy of the Cuban taxpayer is flashing his credit card around? No way. That's why we have to be stricter in our selection process, in giving them acclimatisation talks, lectures and so on". Odlum also made the point that "in St. Lucia, if the taxpayers were paying for any students they would never stand the situation of foreign students enjoying a higher lifestyle or better creature comforts than St. Lucians. St. Lucians would never stand for that!"
But the St. Lucia-Cuba Student Association in a special press release in The Star and Voice this weekend says "Many of the remarks made have been exaggerated, understated or taken out of context. As a result, students are being confronted with hasty and unjustified generalizations". The "false image" that has been painted as a result, says the association, is "very disturbing to us". The student body wishes to remind St. Lucians of the fact that "Cuba is a very large country and students are located in different provinces, that is hundreds of miles apart and the situation for one student is not necessarily the same for another". Finally, the association expresses its "extreme gratitude to the Government of St. Lucia for the opportunity afforded us to pursue higher studies and our thanks also go to the Cuban government for providing the scholarship programme".
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Another year at NCB for St. Rose
Marius St. Rose will remain as managing director of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) for yet another year, so as to enable that bank to continue its program of consolidation, rationalisation and expansion, and to give its Board more time to find a long-term replacement for him. St. Rose has been on secondment from the Caribbean Development Bank, where he has been holding the position of Vice President (Operations) for twelve years now. The NCB had requested that St. Rose stay on for another year. His new contract finishes on 30th September 2001. The Mirror, Star and Thursday Voice report this.
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James Daley new US ambassador to OECS
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Fraudulent US couple picked up at Cap Estate
An American couple accused of US$9 million fraud back in the United States, was deported from St. Lucia last week Thursday following a joint operation between local law enforcers and US investigators. The two had taken up residence in Cap Estate, St. Lucia, in January of this year together with their two children and their nanny, under false names. Robert (37) and Kimberley (36) Morgan called themselves Randy Sho Kaneyuki and Jeane Kay Kaneyuki. Whilst residing in St. Lucia, they performed computer services for unsuspecting, prominent local businesses. They had fled their expensive home in San Jose, California, when they became aware that police were after them. They have been charged with fraud and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The Tuesday Voice, Star and Mirror all report on this.
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Four-lane highway underway – accident rate increases
A feasibility study has been started to investigate whether it is possible, and viable, to build a four lane highway from Vieux Fort to Castries. This was announced at a press conference this week by minister for Communication and Works, Calixte George. German consulting engineering firm DIWI Consult International will undertake the study, which is funded by the Kuwaiti government to the tune of US$151,000. By November of this year, the minister expects to have a better idea of the viability of a four lane highway in St. Lucia. The Star reports this.
Meanwhile, the paper dedicates its centerspread to an article on the dangerous state of St. Lucia's traffic. According to figures provided by The Star, car accidents are on the rise, as are serious injuries resulting from road accidents, and the number of fatal casualties. In all of 1999, 22 people died in traffic-related incidents. Between January and May 2000, 13 road fatalities have already occurred. In 1998, 206 people were seriously injured in traffic, in 1999 this figure rose to 275, and between January and May of 2000, 165 people have already sustained serious injury on the island's roads. For this year, 851 road accidents have already taken place in Castries alone. According to an official at the police traffic department, "Many of these accidents are caused by carelessness, and blatant disregard for the traffic laws". According to the president of the Insurance Council, Claudius Francis, the majority of insurance claims are made by males. More than 70 percent of accidents involve persons between the ages of 18 and 35. "We are also finding that the majority of accidents reported to us could have been avoided. A number of accidents are caused by impatient driving, overtaking on the highway and the improper use of the lanes at the roundabout". The problem appears not to be a lack of traffic laws, says Francis, but rather the need to implement and enforce existing laws.
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Level playing field for car dealers
Second-hand car dealers who operate without dealership licenses may soon loose their cutting edge if the licensing department succeeds in putting special legislation in place which will protect established car dealers who pay license fees. The Star reports this. In recent times, several unofficial car dealers have set up shop, ordering reconditioned and second-hand cars from Japan via the internet. This has caused some hardship to new car dealers and established rental companies, who are required to operate under "very strict guidelines", says Northwest's marketing director Larry Bain. "Other dealers like ourselves are expected to operate a compound and parts and servicing departments, and we pay heavy import duties, while the used car dealers not guided by such rules, have cars under their houses, in their yards and do not carry parts for the vehicles they import". Further according to The Star, companies such as Avis Rent-A-Car have also been hurt by the influx of secondhand cars (about 250 vehicles are imported into St. Lucia every month, claims The Star). Avis' Keith Fletcher laments the fact that his company "cannot compete favourably with other firms who purchase used vehicles for rental purposes and do so at a much lower rate than us". Fletcher suggests that government should regulate the importation of used cars to citizens for private use only. Another problem that surfaces according to The Star is the fact that so many different types of cars are being imported, that it is often virtually impossible to find spare parts at a reasonable price. It is therefore often more economical for an insurance company to write the vehicle off - something which results in a high number of derelict cars in the country.
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Mastermix forced to give up pirating music
Pirating music may have seen its last days in St. Lucia, since the recently formed Hewanorra Musical Society (HMS) recently successfully managed to force a large local music distribution company - Mastermix Sounds - to agree to an out-of-court settlement. This is reported in The Star. HMS had taken Mastermix Sounds to court for copyright infringement. The company has agreed to eliminate its piracy equipment and practices. HMS had been doing door-to-door spot checks in music stores, and has been looking especially for order lists where customers request which music they want. This is then dubbed illegally onto a disc and sold. HMS was set up last January, as a non-profit organisation. It is made up of local composers and publishers of music and will act as representative for persons in the music industry. HMS will be paying royalties, provide education on the business side of music, and grant licenses to establishments that play and distribute music. HMS' activities are backed up by the 1995 Copyright Act of St. Lucia, which prohibits the use of copyright music in public without the permission of the owner. HMS is expected to hold its first annual general meeting on the 26th August, so that the interim board can be replaced by an elected board.
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St. Lucian delegates to Sydney Olympics named
The names of St. Lucia's delegates to the Olympic Summer Games 2000 in Sydney, Australia were revealed last Thursday. The athletes are: Ronald Promesse (100 metres), Vernetta Lesporis (400 metres), Dominic Johnson (pole vaulting), Jamie Peterkin (50 metres free style swimming), Sheri Scobie-Henry (ditto), Sarah Alexander (netball, youth camp) and Peter James (swimming, youth camp). Accompanying the sportsmen and women are David Peterkin (president of the St. Lucia Amateur Swimming Association), Gregory Lubin (coach), Alfred Emmanuel (general secretary of the National Olympic Committee and chef de mission), and prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony (as special guest of the NOC).
According to Richard Peterkin in The Star, St. Lucia's participation at the Sydney Olympics will cost approximately $150,000 - and is being financed through the NOC's own resources.
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Victorian celebrates 103rd year of life
Ms. Ella Francis, who celebrated her 103rd birthday on 19th March of this year, was the recipient of a special thanks-giving Mass held at the Castries Cathedral, last week. The celebration took place in the presence of Ms. Francis' children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, as well as governor-general Dame Pearlette Louisy and friends. Ms. Francis also received a congratulatory message from Queen Elizabeth II. Ms. Francis was born at Victoria, Choiseul, on 19th March 1897. She currently lives at the Marian Home for the Elderly in Castries. The Voice reports this.
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