Annual Agriculture Review 2008 - Government of Grenada

Grenada’s Agrarian Economy – Exploiting the Niche of Agro-Tourism ...continued
niche. Branded “The Isle of Spice” the
island is profuse with spices and herbs.
Spice gardens, herbal gardens, organic
gardens, coupled with the spa and therapy
features can all be packaged appropriately
for the health and wellness enthusiasts.
Culinary Tourism focuses on the
preparation, and enjoyment of food
and drink. The emphasis is the creation
of international dishes adapted using
local ingredients and the preparation of
traditional food and drink. This sub-set of
agro-tourism includes dinner and theatre
packages, culinary schools and workshops,
food festivals, tasting/buying packaged
local products, farmers markets and tour
of a food or rum factory. The food festivals
above mentioned as community tourism
initiatives, World Food Day food festival,
are all examples of Culinary Tourism.
Grenada continues to excel in regional food
competitions, with local chefs achieving the
tops positions. There is a conscious effort
within the local hotels and restaurants,
driven by the Grenada Tourism Board to
consistently improve food variety, standards
and quality, with an emphasis on the use
of local products in food preparation.
Grenada’s rich culture of traditional ethnic
foods enables extraordinary potential for
development of this sub-sector. The area
of Agro-Trade is involves creating trade
relationships with the business sector,
artisans and agro-processors. This is an area
of exponential growth potential. Presently,
de La Grenade Industries is the largest local
agro-processor. However, there are several
small scale enterprises that need growth and
development direction and assistance.
Success Cases: Gouyave
Fish Friday Festival &
Belmont Estate
Fish Friday 14
Gouyave Fish Friday Festival (GFFF) is a
street festival that was established in June
2005. Held every Friday evening, the event
focused on offering a wide assortment
of fish cuisine to its guests, in a fun, safe
environment where people also enjoy
meeting friends, and listening to music
and participating in cultural activities. The
established goals of GFFF are to focus on
the development and marketing of diverse
fish products, to promote community
development in Gouyave and the rest
of the Parish of St. John, by promoting
Gouyave as the fishing capital of our Spice
Island; create linkages with other sectors of
the local economy, including agriculture,
craft production and the cultural arts; to
promote Gouyave as a tourist town and
provide diverse economic opportunities
and generate income opportunities for the
people of St. John.
The festival is managed by a Board of
Directors comprised of stakeholders and
representatives of various interest groups. It is
now a major community tourism attraction.
In an effort to ensure the continued success
of this venture, and bring the festival to
capacity, plans are being made to improve
the current operation and to introduce
new activities like tours of Dougaldston
Spice Factory, the town of Gouyave, the
nutmeg factory, other landmark sites and
to also offer accommodation. The festival
is an outstanding example of a successful
community tourism project with a strong
agro-toursim linkage.
Belmont Estate
Belmont Estate is an authentic 17th century
plantation, located at Belmont in St. Patrick.
It is a fully functioning estate and employs
about 80 persons from the surrounding
communities. The concept is to offer
visitors a unique perspective of Grenadian
agricultural and food processing life in situ
and help visitors to see the value-added
initiatives that were being implemented at
Belmont Estate. The decision was made
for economic, socio-cultural and external
factors. It became necessary to diversify
the farm activities so as to generate other
revenue streams for the business.
However, equally important was that the
owners thought that Belmont Estate would
be an excellent facility to educate visitors
about agricultural production, plantation
life, the cocoa to chocolate experience,
and plantation history that is so intricately
woven into the island’s history.
Further, it was envisioned that an enterprise
like Belmont Estate would increase the
tourism product offerings of Grenada, and
would also stimulate other entrepreneurs to
reorganize their farm activities to include
agro-tourism products.
The uniqueness of Belmont Estate is that it
is the most diverse agro-tourism enterprise
on the island. The product offerings
include visits to the organic farm, gardens,
heritage museum, and cocoa processing
facilities. There is also a restaurant featuring
traditional Grenadian cuisine, a goat dairy
farm, petting farm, conference room,
gift shop, café, produce shop, cultural
entertainment, a credit union and craft
market. Belmont Estate presently embodies
several of the sub-sectors of the agrotourism
market. As a farm based and agroeco
tourism facility it offers tours, petting
farm, and donkey rides. The main feature of
the tour is learning of the operations of the
organic cocoa produced on the estate for
making dark chocolate with the Grenada
Chocolate Company. The new goat dairy
project utilized the milk from the goat to
make fresh goats cheese. A full tour of the
goat houses and dairy will commence in
November 2009. Harvesting of fruits and
vegetables will be introduced as part of the
visitor activities at that time. As part of
its community tourism activities, culinary
tourism, it has introduced four annual
festivals – Indian Arrival Day, African
Heritage Day, Rhythms & Flavours and
Creole Day, featuring ethnic foods and
cultural activities.
A small farmers market is included as
a part of these events and local farmers
participate by selling their produce. In an
effort to add greater variety to the typical
Grenadian cuisine offered at the restaurant,
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