St. Vincent and the Grenadines is still feeling the knock on effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict; those effects are being reflected in the price of imported goods at the nation’s supermarkets, according to Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar.
Minister Caesar while encouraging Vincentians to buy local, noted that this same price increase is not being seen in locally sourced commodities, thanks to the stability in fertilizer prices here in SVG.
“What it means then, is that those commodities that we are growing here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines—that we are not feeling that level of inflation on those commodities, because throughout the year we were able to keep the cost of fertilizer stable so that farmers did not get that knock on effect from the prices for fertilizer.
So in other neighbouring islands, you are seeing both an increase, a significant increase in the cost for locally produced food and imported food, because, remember, the locally produced food, they’re using fertilizer that is coming from overseas,” Caesar said.
Minister Caesar made note credited the stability of SVG’s fertilizer prices to assistance provided by Morocco, as well as Venezuela, which earlier this year provided 40,000 sacks of urea fertilizer.
