Farmers ‘frustrated’ by rampant red tape

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An agriculture entrepreneur yesterday urged multiple government ministries to slash the bureaucratic processes that are “frustrating” farmers and impeding a “time sensitive” industry.

Caron Shepherd, president of the newly-formed Bahamas Agro Entrepreneurs Group, told Tribune Business she was constantly pushing the Ministry of Agriculture to reform a circuitous approval process that farmers must endure when importing the likes of seeds, raw materials and production equipment that are vital to growing crops and livestock.

With COVID-19 having reawakened food security and sustainability discussions in The Bahamas, she argued that unnecessary red tape was stifling the ability of domestic producers to make further inroads into their 8 percent share of the country’s food needs.

“I try to get people to understand how time sensitive food is,” Ms Shepherd said. “You cannot plant a seed today and wait for 90 days down the road for it to sprout. Everything grown rotationally is time sensitive.

“I’m trying to get people at the Ministry of Agriculture to understand how time sensitive these matters are. You have to write to the Ministry of Agriculture to get permission to import certain items. They then have to write to the Ministry of Finance to approve those items, which takes two weeks.

“Two weeks is not a long time for a person sitting behind a desk, but for a farmer that is a long time. What I am saying to the Government is that we need to have a ‘farmer’s card’ attached to, and for use at, Customs.”

Such a card, which could only be used by registered farmers identified as genuine industry participants, would be employed to facilitate the importation of raw materials and equipment without having to go through the current red tape and delays caused by dealing with multiple ministries.

“They’re already in the system, and would be able to say they are a registered farmer who has been farming for five, ten, 15 years and need to bring in these items,” Ms Shepherd explained of how the card would function.

“You do not have to write to the Ministry of Agriculture and then go to the Ministry of Finance because it is going to sit on one person’s desk. We farmers are frustrated by having to write to the Ministry of Agriculture, write to the Ministry of Finance for approval, and wait for it to be sent back.”

Calling for farmers’ raw materials and production equipment to be made VAT-free, Ms Shepherd told this newspaper: “I have mentioned the need to invest at least $100m in bringing agriculture to the point where it will be sustainable and improve our development.

“Once we’re able to inject at least $100m into agriculture, that gives us a jump start to produce quite an array of produce so we can move to the next level. It allows us to purchase raw seeds, what we need to hire people and let people be hired.”

She added, though, that this financing was not reliant on a hand-out or subvention from the Government. “I’m not saying we need all this from the Government,” Ms Shepherd said. “We have persons out there interested in investing in the farmers. There’s a lot of talk on the table that has not yet materialised.”

Declining to fully disclose her financing plans, she indicated one option could be an initial public offering (IPO) type raise involving the Bahamian public. “The $100m, we know how we’re going to raise that,” Ms Shepherd said. “We don’t need the Government to give us $100m, we just need all the red tape to be cut out for us to do what we need to do.

“We know how we’re going to do that. We want to be able to bring it to the public. We don’t want large investors. We want to be able to go to the small man and let the small man participate in the growth of agriculture development. We don’t want someone to come in with $100m. We want people to participate, and be participants in the industry.” 

Comments

sheeprunner12 says...

The Govt attitude is:who cares about farmers when you can get cheap imports??? .... Watch and see what's coming with the US supply chain crisis.

Posted 19 October 2021, 2:35 p.m. Suggest removal

DWW says...

I dare say that Ms. Shepard may not understand how the VAT system works. A business (if real and profitable) would take in more VAT than it pays out. A business in the Bahamas does not actually pay any VAT at all they just collect it on behalf of the Gov't. She might want to get one of them coveted and rarely obtainable SBDC classes. Oh wait, is that still a thing?

Posted 19 October 2021, 3:27 p.m. Suggest removal

DWW says...

I do agree that raw materials and tools for farming should be import tax exempt. problem is the tools can also be used for construction which is not intended to import tax exempt. Why don't we just get rid of taxes altogether and just collet money from the sand. oh wait...

Posted 19 October 2021, 3:29 p.m. Suggest removal

Emilio26 says...

DWW I think we should've been farming some of our own food with produce such as tomatoes, oranges, cabbage, sweet potatoes, pineapples, bananas, lettuce and pumpkin. Our food import bill is in the billions which is too high.

Posted 19 October 2021, 4:20 p.m. Suggest removal

happyfly says...

The government does care about farming but the problem is that most Bahamians believe it is still a viable option - for some family islander with nothing else to do, to go in the field and mess around growing some corn. The reality is that competitive and sustainable farming these days is specialized, targetted, high-tech, capital intensive, government-subsidized, supply chain driven, etc, etc......and it's risky and frickin hard work. But we must figure it out because it does not make any sense at all to be 95% dependent on imported food. Nada !

Posted 20 October 2021, 8:32 a.m. Suggest removal

Proguing says...

Every business and Bahamian are frustrated by rampant red tape in the Bahamas

Posted 20 October 2021, 10:43 a.m. Suggest removal

The_Oracle says...

Various Government departments have, over the years, taken great liberties in process beyond what the various acts provide for.
We, the Bahamian public have allowed this, through our ignorance of the written law as it pertains to whatever Government service we are needing.
Authority is legitimate, often the exercised power is not.

Posted 20 October 2021, 10:51 a.m. Suggest removal

FrustratedBusinessman says...

Is this their first day in the Bahamas? Join the club.

Posted 20 October 2021, 11:22 a.m. Suggest removal

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