Arrowroot harvesting officially got underway in the north of St Vincent on Monday, January 25, with approximately 150 acres to be harvested.

“We are expecting a yield of a little over one million pounds, so we have a lot of work to do,” said manager of the Arrowroot Industry Association Cauldric Brown.{{more}}

“We are a bit late this year harvesting should have commenced in late November, early December, but we had some problems at the factory, which we had to sort out first; so now we have everything under control, we commenced harvesting today (January 25).

“Before we ask the farmers to harvest, we have to make sure that the factory is up and running and we have to issue reaping cards. The officers would check the farmers to ensure that the fields are actually ready for harvesting,” Brown explained.

Brown further disclosed that a few years ago, farmers were paid 25 cents per pound. This price, according to the Arrowroot Industry Association manager, was not attractive to the farmers, so most farmers went out of production.

“We had to do something to get farmers to get back into production, so the price moved from 25 cents to 30 cents to 50 cents; but when we moved to one dollar, that was enough, so we had a lot of farmers coming back into production.”

With anticipation of harvesting over one million pounds of starch, Brown disclosed that the Arrowroot Industry Association is seeking new markets.

“We are trying to get into those traditional markets and looking for new markets.”