Recently the Minister of Agriculture, Leslie Miller announced that he was placing a two-month ban on the importation of eggs into Grand Bahama. That single act reflects many failures.
According to Minister Miller the poultry industry “has not really shown much success over the last 40 or 50 years”. Some consumers in Grand Bahama consider the ban unfair precisely because it limits their choice.
For over a decade Baham-ian businesses, spearheaded by Super Value’s “Buy Bahamian” campaign, have been supporting Bahamian businesses from beds, batteries and clothing to onions, cabbages and tomatoes.
The Minister, who admitted that the ban did impinge upon consumers’ right to choose, cannot on the one hand claim to be a champion of consumer rights but then turn around and force them to buy what he thinks they should.
The ban looks no more than an attempt by the Minister to help a failed or failing business mitigate its losses, no matter how caused, on the backs of the same Bahamian consumer whom the Minister wishes to protect.
The fact is batteries made in The Bahamas are competing with imports from all over the world; mattresses made in The Bahamas are able to hold their own against imports and Bahamian consumers can now enjoy red and yellow peppers as well as vine-ripened tomatoes for prices substantially below those being imported into The Bahamas.
A predecessor Minister of Agriculture once banned the importation of bananas in an attempt to help the farmers in Long Island and other islands recover some losses after a hurricane. The market was flooded with some of the worse examples of bananas. The only standard for those bananas was that they were grown in The Bahamas. The bananas were neither attractive to look at nor were they tasty since the farmers simply dumped whatever they had in an attempt to maximise their brief monopoly of the market. It did more harm than good for the banana industry in The Bahamas.
The Bahamian consumer is sophisticated and knowledgeable about quality and value. If Bahamian producers are unable to meet even minimum standards of quality and presentation, the Bahamian consumer should not be forced to purchase inferior goods on the misguided notion that by so doing they are in the words of the Minister, “giv[ing] protection and enhancement to those Bahamians who are out their taking a chance in getting involved in the expansion and diversification of the Bahamian economy”.
Actually no one, Bahamian or otherwise, goes into business to expand or diversify the Bahamian or any other economy. They do go into business in the hopes of being successful and making a profit. If after 40 or 50 years an industry is unable to demonstrate its ability to generate and support successful businesses, then something is wrong with that industry.
Instead of forcing consumers to buy products they clearly do not believe meet minimum standards of presentation and or quality, Ministers of Agriculture and those with oversight for standards, ought to be establishing minimum standards of presentation and quality for products manufactured in The Bahamas. “Made in The Bahamas” is, in and of itself, an insufficient reason to buy a product.
Instead of forcing consumers to buy inferior products or as is more than likely in Grand Bahama, getting on ferry and buying the eggs that have been banned, time money and effort should be placed on helping Bahamian manufacturers and farmers meet international standards of quality and excellence. Handouts as a sole solution are an emphatic failure of policy.
By: C. E. HUGGINS, Business Editor, The Nassau Guardian
