- Sandals St Vincent opens March 27 , 2024
The mega-brand hotel Sandals St Vincent is scheduled to open on March 27, however, fishermen say the government has not taken their interests into consideration and they will not profit from the demand for seafood items that the hotel would require.
Winsbert Harry, President of the National Fisherfolk Organisation, stated on Friday on Nice Radio that the majority of fisherman in St. Vincent and the Grenadines sell fish to the agriculture input warehouse, which manages the Kingstown Fish Market. He questioned why the government did not use the facility, stating that the market could have supplied fish to sandals rather than Rainforest Seafoods.
“We have the Kingstown Fish Market, where most of the fishermen sell fish too. You have the fisheries centre in Calliaqua; you have a fisheries centre in Barrouallie. So why then, in all this time of preparedness, you did not upgrade these two fishing centres that could supply Sandals Hotel with the fish?”.
Gonsalves stated on Star Radio earlier this month that Sandals Resorts will not buy fish from individuals, but rather from Rainforest Seafoods, he also urged farmers to sell their produce to a “aggregator,” who would then resale it to the resort.
Rainforest Seafoods is owned by Brian Jardim, the son of deceased hotel magnate Gordon ‘Butch‘ Stewart, who created Sandals Resorts International.
Harry continues, “I think this move puts the fishermen at a disadvantage. With this move, fishermen will be left stranded because of the price of fish that we get now, and if you look at the price of gas, then the price that they will be offering will not be the price that will benefit the fishermen.”
“We, the fishermen, with the type of boats we have, will not be able to sustain or bring the quality of fish that this hotel might want because we do not have the fleet. So my thing is, it appears that Rainforest is going to bring in their own boat now to supply Sandals with the fish they need. This is what we, the fishermen, have to look into, because this is going to be a serious threat to our fishing.”
In a February 2014 article posted on the Rainforest Seafoods website, CEO Brain Jardim said, “We have five commercial fishing vessels supplying us, of which Rainforest owns one, which is basically used to buy produce from fishermen on the Pedro Cays.”
Harry stated that because SVG’s fleet expansion initiative is not going anywhere, fishermen are not spending as many days at sea as they should.
The government announced the Fleet Expansion Programme in June 2022, claiming that it was designed to improve fishermen’s access to engines and boats.
The initiative is being carried out in partnership with the Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union (KCCU), which has a revolving capacity worth EC$1.5 million. Loans would be available to both existing and new fishing operators, said Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar at the launch.
Harry is urging fishermen to take the existing Sandals – Rainforest Seafoods agreement seriously, claiming that they will lose their fishing grounds due to the type of boats they are currently utilising, and even selling to Rainforest Seafoods will yield minimal profit. He also addressed a looming crisis involving conch stock.
“And the other thing we have to pay close attention to is our conch, because it seems that our conch is going into deeper and deeper waters. How will they get conch to supply that hotel? So I am urging the fishermen to pay attention to what is happening. Stand up and speak out for your industry because if things continue, I repeat myself, we will be in for a rough year. If we don’t protect our industry from what is happening,” Harry said.
In April 2019, Rainforest Seafoods and the St Vincent government inked a deal to build a cutting-edge seafood processing plant in Calliaqua.
The St Vincent government and Sandals International reached a deal in July 2020 for Sandals International to take over the closed Buccament Bay Resort, which closed operations owing to financial issues.
