Sascha Wil­son

With con­cerns loom­ing over food se­cu­ri­ty in light of glob­al COVID-19 re­stric­tions, co­coa farm­ers are again call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to put mea­sures in place to re­vi­talise the co­coa in­dus­try.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the Li­ons Civic Cen­tre in Siparia, Os­car Cadet, pres­i­dent of the Siparia Erin Co­coa Al­lied Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, said the co­coa in­dus­try could once again be­come a main­stay of the econ­o­my.

Re­mind­ing the pop­u­la­tion that T&T’s co­coa is one of the best in the world, he said, “As of 2015, we use to ex­port at least about $15 mil­lion worth of co­coa and co­coa prod­ucts, now just a few pri­vate choco­late mak­ers do­ing any­thing.”

Not­ing that the demise of the co­coa in­dus­try be­gan sev­er­al years ago as the oil sec­tor gained more promi­nence, he said peo­ple lost in­ter­est in the co­coa in­dus­try and it be­came un­eco­nom­i­cal.

But, he said the fi­nal nail in the sec­tor’s cof­fin oc­curred in 2016 when the Co­coa In­dus­try Board was shut down and the Gov­ern­ment seized its as­sets.

“We had over $40 mil­lion in as­sets there, we don’t know where it gone,” he said.

He, how­ev­er, said the farm­ers be­lieve that mon­ey be­longs to them “be­cause they were buy­ing the co­coa un­der­price, sell­ing it un­der­price, and then what­ev­er funds they get they putting it in the cof­fers.”

Cadet com­plained that in 2010, when a fire de­stroyed 200 acres of bear­ing co­coa trees, farmer re­ceived no com­pen­sa­tion or as­sis­tance from the Gov­ern­ment.

As it stands now, he said, the co­coa sec­tor is in a mess, thou­sands of acres of co­coa trees are idle and un­em­ploy­ment is high.

Call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to hold a meet­ing with all stake­hold­ers in the co­coa in­dus­try, he said, “The Gov­ern­ment needs to es­tab­lish a prop­er re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion pro­gramme for the co­coa in­dus­try. This will call for sub­si­dies and prop­er work­ing con­di­tions be­cause for far too long the agri­cul­ture and co­coa in­dus­try peo­ple are liv­ing by bits and pieces. We want a prop­er struc­ture put in place so that farm­ers and work­ers en­gaged in this in­dus­try, it could be prof­itable to all.”

He com­plained that nu­mer­ous meet­ings across the board with sev­er­al gov­ern­ments over the years have borne no fruit.

“The Gov­ern­ment needs to do some­thing se­ri­ous­ly at this point in time when we not sure what will hap­pen next year with food se­cu­ri­ty. They need to come to the co­coa sec­tor and let us show them how to make mon­ey,” he said.

Call­ing for a na­tion­al con­sul­ta­tion on the re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion of the co­coa sec­tor, he said, “We want them to look at Grena­da and St Vin­cent and all the oth­er is­lands that are do­ing ex­treme­ly well. They putting the sub­sidy in the wrong place. Come talk to us and we will show them how to make mon­ey.”

Vice pres­i­dent Bas­deo Ram­sa­roop said dur­ing World War Two the per­son who owned co­coa land had food on their ta­ble. “If his­to­ry re­peats it­self now with this and we cant get for­eign food (with COVID-19)…the man who had a piece of co­coa land will have food. It is so ben­e­fi­cial be­sides co­coa, it has the best bread­fruit, zabo­ca, fig and it pre­serves the wildlife and the wa­terbed.”