Rayneau Industries a newly formed food export business in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on Wednesday, 22nd, March, 2023, exported a container of vegetables and fruits from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the United States Virgin Islands.
The list of commodies included: butternut squash, cabbage, callaloo, dasheen, bananas, yams, plantains, ginger, eddoes and tumeric.
Commodities such as butternut squash and cabbage were first time exports. The commodities were sourced on the Windward and Leeward side of the country and the packaging was done at Lauders and Rose Bank.
Rayneau Industries has conducted this first trial shipment mainly to gauge the success rate in quality of the good transported. The purchaser in the USVI, Mr. Ferdinand Francis of Francis Commercial Farming, noted that all the commodities arrived in premium condition.
CEO of Rayneau Industries Mr. Rayneau Gajadhar noted that this first success has opened limitless opportunities to the farmers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the rest of the OECS. He stated that, “We are starting in SVG to work with the farmers to create an export platform that can create excellent sameday payment to farmers. Together we will make this work”.
Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Saboto Caesar, in thanking Mr. Gajadhar for the confidence he has shown in the agriculture sector in SVG, stated, “I have always preached the need for a consolidated marketing platform created through a public/private partnership. This can very well be the start of a renaissance in the consolidated marketing of Windwards agriculture produce. It is a wake up call to call stakeholders in the agriculture sector to expand production exponentially. Imagine that, we exported cabbage and butternut squash!”
Rayneau Industries is represented locally by Annette Mark former CEO of Invest SVG and Richard Branch former Banker.
In addition to the farmers, the shipment was made possible with the technical support of the Ministry of Agriculture, local shippers and Alvin “Buffer” Collins.
