GRENLEC Rewarding Customers With Year-long Promotion

06 BARNACLE JANUARY 2013
News
GCNA spending $1,000,000 to assist nutmeg farmers
arlon Clyne, As Genral
Manager of the
renada Cooperative
utmeg Association
GCNA): Clyne’s responibility
is to make recmmendations
to, and
mplement policies of
he Board of Directors
f the Association.
lyne became manager
f the Association in
uly 2010, discusses the
tate of the nutmeg inustry
with Barnacle’s
an George.
CNA says it has a
lan to assist farmers
ith their fields. Tell us
bout that plan.
armers have been asking
for help to replant and
maintain their fields since
the destruction caused by
hurricanes Ivan and Emily
in 2004/5. Unfortunately,
the Association was not
in a position to respond
positively to the calls of
our farmers. In fact, in
about March 2011 our
situation deteriorated to
the point where we could
not purchase nutmegs for
cash on a daily basis; our
basic operational function.
Interestingly, it was also
the beginning of the most
successful period of trading
since 2004. It signaled
the start of a period that
propelled us to the realize
$7.1 million dollars net
MARLON CLYNE
surplus financial year
ended June 2012.
It therefore means the Association
is better placed
to reach out to farmers
because we have had a
relatively good financial
year. We are able to direct
some money to assist in replanting
and maintenance.
Part of that assistance
would be $1,000,000 we’ve
identified to help farmers
in different areas including
drainage, weed control,
pruning, fertilizer and
the distribution of young
plants.
What is the payback
GCNA is hoping to get
from this investment of
$200,000 into farmers?
The payback will mainly
be in the form of increased
production down the road.
Once we have increased
production, we have
increased raw material for
sale, it would allow us to
take advantage of higher
prices. It would allow us
to try and regain some of
the markets that we would
have lost. The quicker we
are able to return to the
market, the quicker we’ll
be able to engender confidence
in our current and
former buyers who have
not returned to us because
of limited supply. Some
of our buyers would have
switched to Indian and Indonesian
nutmegs. So, the
more help that we can give
to farmers to return to the
field and to boost their
production, it would augur
well for us in the future in
terms of increased availability
of the product to
sell and in regaining lost
market.
Which comes first –
increased revenue or
increased production?
Increased production
comes first although that
can have its drawbacks if
we don’t have solid financial
backing, indeed this
is what we experienced in
the first half of 2011. we
were always confident that
once the production come
in, the revenue will come
in as well because we had
solid sales contracts but
we did not have production.
By increasing prices
to farmers by almost 100%
production then surpassed
all expectations.
How many farmers
are expected to benefit
from the $1,000,000 assistance
program?
We’re trying to spread
it around as much as
possible; we’re trying to
give everybody something.
Of course, we
would have liked for it to
be more. Based on our
continued profitability, we
would try to increase the
amount more and more.
There are some farmers
whose yields do not allow
them to reinvest in their
fields as they would want
to and they are in a vulnerable
position and need
help. And, it’s not just the
$500,000. Throughout the
year we’ll be having different
activities; we want to
stay active in helping the
farmers.
The GCNA is now in
the news. What has
spurred this resurgence
of media interest in the
GCNA?
It’s the increased rates to
farmers. Nutmeg production
has become attractive
to our population once
again and given the situation
in our economy, given
the reduced activity in
some of our other sectors,
nutmeg is gaining people’s
attention. When you look
at what nutmeg farmers
are realizing, it is the best
rates they have ever been
paid in the history of the
industry. So, it is creating
a stir; it is creating attention;
and the media will
pick up on things that are
happening, and nutmeg
is definitely happening
these days with the kind of
prices that we are having.
Tell me a little bit about
the recent Nutmeg
Festival. What has been
the experience? Going
forward, what are some
of the things we can
expect?
It was the first and we
learnt a lot from staging
the festival. We had good
responses and one of the
biggest pluses was working
with other sectors and
seeing the possibilities
that we could have with
other sectors, especially
the tourism and hotel
industries. We had chefs
from some of our top hotels
here making recipes with
nutmegs and spices; they
came up with some pretty
creative recipes. There are
some lessons we would
have learnt. The hope
going forward is that we
could put together a team
of people from the GCNA,
Ministry of Agriculture,
and the tourism sector to
plan bigger and better for
next year.
There will always be ups
and downs in the price of
agricultural raw materials.
But, we can cushion
the impact of the fluctuation
in commodity prices
if we create alternative
uses for nutmeg, especially
if we can do it locally. It
means that we’ll be able
to manufacture various
products and be able to
sell value-added items
locally and to the rest of
the world. However, we
have been talking that
for a very long time. We
need to create a better
environment that will
foster that kind of change.
At the GCNA’s level, we’ll
try as much as possible to
sustain the prices that we
have paid to our farmers
over the past year.