By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterAGRICULTURE MINISTER Roger Clarke said Wednesday that while the local agricultural sector has been on the "rebound" there would be challenges for the new year as further price reductions were expected for produce supplied to preferential overseas markets.
"We still have a couple more years to access the preferential markets but one can sense that there will be price reductions," he told reporters during a sectoral review at the Ministry of Agriculture's Hope Road offices in St. Andrew.
The Minister said that during the year, despite the closure of the Victoria Banana farm in Clarendon, some 37,200 tonnes of banana were exported as against 37,800 tonnes in 2002 but sugar recorded its lowest production in 60 years with just 152,000 tonnes being produced.
At the same time, he said, "the international scene as far as banana and sugar are concerned will indicate that we are going to have some difficulties with prices."
He said that some persons have suggested that more value-added products be created to obtain optimal benefits from agricultural production, but according to him, while value added was important there must be emphasis on reducing the cost of production.
"If people can grow these crops profitably, why is it that we are sentenced as it were to be continuous high cost sugar producers?" he questioned.
"HARSH" ECONOMIC CLIMATE
The Agriculture Minister also said that the high interest rates - the result of the "harsh" economic climate - and praedial larceny meant that there were still hurdles for the sector.
He said that the ministry has been able to access loans, as low as nine per cent but that farmers have not taken advantage of those loans.
In the meantime, Minister Clarke said that the long awaited praedial larceny bill would be tabled in parliament next month.
"At the committee stage we have systematically gone through the legislation that is going to be put in place and we have just one more hurdle to cross and we have set down the sixth of January as the final day (to deal with the bill) as far as the committee is concerned," he said.
