By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN farmers on the Family Islands say marketing their produce continues to pose a major challenge, one telling Tribune Business: "You have to fight to get your stuff sold."

Caleb Evans, owner of Caleb Evans Farms in North Andros, said: "It is a challenge for you to market, because sometimes you try to contact some of the wholesalers and, when you get them, they tell you that they will get back to you and they never do.

"No buyers bought tomatoes from me this year, cabbages and stuff like that. It's a hassle in being able to move your stuff. You try to get rid of them the best you could."

Mr Evans added: "Some of the stuff goes to waste. You carry some to the packing house, and sometimes some go bad because you just can't find a market for them. One of the things you have to do is limit the amount of what you plant based on what you know you can sell to minimise your losses."

Mr Evans' sentiments were echoed by veteran farmer E. John Newton. Mr Newton told Tribune Business: "One of the challenges we face is marketing. The Government packing houses are limited to $9,000 a year; that can't buy fertilizer for a season.

"Merchants come, they get you excited, but when the time comes to buy they give you the run around. Getting the produce to Nassau isn't really an issue; marketing is the greatest problem we face, it's rough right now. People produce the stuff and you have to fight to get it sold."

Senior agricultural officer, Stephen Adderley, told Tribune Business: "The larger farmers are encouraged wherever possible to seek there own marketing, and the idea is to get them involved in some association so they can do their own marketing.

"They've been doing it all along, but the problem comes up when the local market is over-saturated, supply is greater than demand, then a lot of them would come to government. When the demand is high it's easy to get a big part of their produce off."

Mr Adderley added: "It is important that farmers come together as a group. That's very critical in them surviving, especially with us becoming a fully-fledged member of WTO. The Government's hands will be practically tied because, if they get to deep into marketing, it would be considered illegal trade.

"Government is limited in what they could do to assist farmers in that against what would be seen as competition against farmers out of the country, which have just has much right to market. A lot of countries still find tricky ways to support local farmers. Our farmers have been geared to fresh market and not doing any sort of processing, and there is a large room for that. Over the years some of them have been doing marketing through an agent, instead of each one trying to find a market in their own, and that has worked."