Rainforest Seafood St Vincent will not be granted any duty-free concessions for their retail outlet currently under construction at Calliaqua.
On Monday, Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar articulated that the concessions allocated for the establishment of the processing facility will not be extended to the retail outlet.
“I want it to be clear that an application was not even made for any concession for the retail part of it. And it was indicated to Rainforest that they cannot simply assume rights based on past practices. And I’m not saying that they wanted to do this, but that was made clear. They can’t just grandfather the concessions that were granted for the establishment of the original facility, the processing plant,” Caesar said.
Caesar on Monday stated, following a question from opposition lawmaker Daniel Cummings, that even though they have not applied, they are not prevented from applying.
“If an application comes in for the provision of duty-free concessions, of course, it will definitely have to be on different terms than the concessions which were granted for the large processing plant. That was $6 million or so, and this one is expected to be just $1 million.”
“The question that we have to ask ourselves is, will we grant duty-free concessions and grant concessions for any Vincentian wishing to establish a retail facility for fishing of a similar nature?’ If you have intention, you will get it. We are giving concessions almost every week at the cabinet for boat owners and for the operators who are now doing the rehabilitative work in Owia. We give concessions in Bequia and Union Island.”
Caesar said the question is how would we treat a CARICOM country applying for a concession that chose St Vincent and the Grenadines to establish a state-of-the-art facility?
“They could have gone to other countries. They are expanding. They currently, at peak period, employ 120 Vincentians in the processing plant, and the retail section is expected to benefit direct employment, five persons at the facility, and in the aggregate, you are going to have approximately 250 producers between farmers and fishers benefiting,” Caesar said.
