The Grena­da gov­ern­ment says it ex­pects growth in the agri­cul­tur­al and con­struc­tion sec­tor this year, de­spite both record­ed de­clines at the end of the first quar­ter com­pared to the same pe­ri­od last year.

“Based on the lim­it­ed da­ta re­ceived from the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice (CSO) and es­ti­mates by the Min­istry of Fi­nance, ba­nana pro­duc­tion de­clined by 45.8 per cent at the end of the first quar­ter in 2023 com­pared to the first quar­ter in 2022,” said the 2023 mid-year re­view.

The re­port, which was re­cent­ly laid in the Par­lia­ment, states that there will be an es­ti­mat­ed de­cline of 5.5 per cent for nut­meg pro­duc­tion, 3.5 per cent for co­coa and 10 per cent for MNIB (Grena­da Mar­ket­ing and Na­tion­al Im­port­ing Board) Pur­chas­es of Oth­er Crops.

“Giv­en that the MNIB is un­der­go­ing re­struc­tur­ing, MNIB pur­chas­es is like­ly to be an in­ac­cu­rate proxy for pro­duc­tion of “Oth­er Crops” for the rest of 2023. Mace and Fish Pro­duc­tion is es­ti­mat­ed to in­crease by 10.3 and one per cent re­spec­tive­ly at the end of the first quar­ter in 2023 com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year,” said the re­port.

“Da­ta re­mains a chal­lenge for the agri­cul­ture sec­tor, and as such, es­ti­mates are used where da­ta gaps ex­ist. How­ev­er, ef­forts are be­ing made to find more re­li­able and ac­cu­rate method­olo­gies. CSO aims to gath­er da­ta from su­per­mar­kets and ho­tels to com­pen­sate for the re­duced avail­abil­i­ty of da­ta from the MNIB,” it added.

The re­port notes that in the con­struc­tion sec­tor, the val­ue of con­struc­tion ma­te­ri­als im­port­ed de­clined by 19.1 per cent by the end of the first quar­ter this year when com­pared to the same pe­ri­od last year but the da­ta used was al­so un­of­fi­cial.

“This was large­ly the re­sult of a drop in prices of con­struc­tion ma­te­ri­als since the quan­ti­ty of im­port­ed ma­te­ri­als in­creased by 10.8 per­cent. Re­tail sales of build­ing ma­te­ri­als al­so in­creased by 4.3 per­cent in val­ue, point­ing to the no­table ex­pan­sion of the con­struc­tion sec­tor.

“Anec­do­tal­ly, growth in the con­struc­tion sec­tor can be sur­mised by the num­ber and size of on­go­ing pub­lic and pri­vate in­vest­ment projects. Sev­er­al ma­jor pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor projects are on­go­ing, in­clud­ing the Mo­linere Land­slip Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Project, the Agri­cul­tur­al Feed­er Roads, the St. John’s Riv­er Flood Mit­i­ga­tion Project (Phase II) the Beach House Project, and the Six Sens­es Ho­tel De­vel­op­ment,” the re­port not­ed.

It said it is an­tic­i­pat­ed that the cur­rent growth tra­jec­to­ry in this sec­tor will per­sist as the ap­petite for for­eign in­vest­ment deep­ens in ar­eas such as tourism and agro- pro­cess­ing.

“That said, sup­ply chain dis­rup­tions, high ship­ping costs, and short­age of skilled labour sup­ply can chal­lenge the sec­tor’s pro­duc­tive ca­pac­i­ty. Notwith­stand­ing, growth is es­ti­mat­ed for the rest of 2023 and the medi­um-term out­look re­mains pos­i­tive,” said the re­port.

ST. GEORGE’S, Grena­da, Sept 1, CMC –

CMC/ls/ir/2023