The wholly-owned Bahamian company headed up by Sir Roland Symonette’s grandson, Cameron, spent three years in researching the most viable method of producing vegetables for the Bahamian market.
The twelve-acre hydroponic greenhouse is the result. Asked how he got involved in farming, Mr. Symonette said that one day he went to the store to pick up some tomatoes and realized that the six tomatoes he picked up cost $10.
“You go to the supermarket and you know you are going to spend a $100 for what you want,” he said, “but I was cooking and needed some tomatoes and went to the supermarket, picked up about six tomatoes figuring they would not cost more than $5, went to the cashier and was stunned to find they were 10 bucks. I figured there had to be a better way to grow better tomatoes cheaper.”
He said the produce sold in local stores are never fresh and it is substandard.
And so began the search for a way to grow affordable tomatoes for the Bahamian market.
Dr. Earl Deveaux, the former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, also works with Lucayan Tropical as the Marketing Director.
The operation is located on Nelson Road, opposite the Airport Industrial Park.
Asked how he got involved, he said one day he went to see Brent Symonette about shipping guavas from Andros to Nassau on the fast ferry service operated by the Symonette family.
“During the conversation he [Brent] said, ‘look I need you to talk to my son, he is going crazy about getting into farming. Talk to him.'”
Together youth and experience began looking realistically at what was available, but more importantly what was viable.
They were taking on the import market of Israel, Mexico and the United States. It would not be enough to say buy it because it is Bahamian. Quality, freshness, reliability of supply and a competitive price all had to be met without government help.
“We had contacts in Holland through Bobby’s sailing,” the young Symonette said, and they helped us and put us in touch with Dalsem, the leading greenhouse designer in Holland.
“They came to The Bahamas and looked at what was available and went back and designed what you see here. The structure and all the systems were designed and built in Holland then shipped here. They supervised the building, which was done by Bahamian companies. We had about 150 Bahamians working on the construction.”
Hydroponic farming is a method of farming that uses water rather than soil as its medium of getting nutrition (potassium nitrate, calcium and magnesium sulphate) to plants. The plants are anchored in coconut fibre.
Environmental control of the entire process, from propagation to harvesting, is what makes hydroponic farming more efficient than more traditional methods, producing yields of 20 to 30 times that of other farming methods.
Dr. Deveaux explained that pest-control is accomplished by using natural predators rather than pesticides.
“We use bumble bees for pollinating the plants,” he explained. “And in cases where we do have to use chemicals they are harmless because poisons would kill the bees and the natural predators. We can guarantee that you can eat our vegetables and not have to worry about any harmful chemicals on the plants.”
Brendan Tanner, a veteran grower, runs the entire operation. Mr. Tanner has spent 28 years in hydroponic farming in his native England and the last two years in Mexico, one of five countries using the greenhouse structure and hydroponic techniques. The other countries are Holland, Israel, Canada and the USA.
Mr. Tanner said that the biggest challenge in hydroponic farming is teaching the techniques to the staff.
“The staff have to know how to propagate the plants, proper pruning techniques and how to take care of the plants,” Mr. Tanner said. “And you have to make sure that the work is being done and you go back over it again. It is the most challenging part of the job wherever you go.”
He said they expected to harvest their first crop of tomatoes by mid September.
“We expect to have 20 to 25 cases a week of cherry and plum tomatoes followed by cluster and beefsteak tomatoes,” he said. “We started out slowly to build the demand. [There’s] no point having a hundred cases and asking people to buy them. This way we can control how much we can produce as the demand grows.”
To ensure a year-round supply of tomatoes, peppers and lettuce, Mr. Tanner said they started out with a six-week planting schedule.
“We have a planting every six weeks but as demand picks up we expect the planting period will drop by a third,” he said.
Dr. Deveaux said that the project would be a laboratory in that the vegetables grown were first tested to see if they could survive in The Bahamas.
“We started out with 11 lettuce varieties and have decided on seven because they are able to grow well in the environment we have here,” he explained. “Right now we are looking at spinach and are going through the same process.”
As the person responsible for getting the product to market, Dr. Deveaux said that they have taken samples to all the wholesalers, the hotels, restaurants and supermarkets and the response has been positive.
“Our competition is the lettuce, tomatoes and peppers that come in from Israel, the US and Mexico,” he explained. “We have taken our vegetables to all the major outlets and we have been very happy with the response. Our product is superior in quality and is competitive, that is what we have been told by the hotels, the distributors and the supermarkets.”
Dr. Deveaux said the advantage the Bahamian-grown vegetables will have over the imports is that restaurants, hotels and Bahamian consumers can be guaranteed fresh vegetables.
“We have an agreement with the supermarkets that they will pick up vegetables from us at least three times a week,” he said. “The supermarkets have promised us our own space in the produce section and we will be monitoring it closely to ensure that our vegetables do not remain on the shelf longer than a few days. A wholesaler supplying the hotels can pass here on their way and pick up lettuce picked that morning for the Radisson.”
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries V. Alfred Grey called on Bahamians to support the venture.
“The success of this venture will depend on Bahamian support,” he said. “And I believe from what I have seen they will give their support. There is no excuse. We have a home-grown product that is of superior quality and competitive.”
C. E. Huggins, The Bahama Journal
