NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The tourism sector fall-out from COVID-19 creates a perfect opportunity to ‘pivot’ to the agriculture and fisheries sector, according to North Eleuthera Howard Mackey.
Mackey addressed the Eleuthera Business Outlook yesterday,
“With respect to development in North Eleuthera and Eleuthera in its entirety, these projects must be rolled out on steroids,” Mackey said.
“The government has lost millions in revenue and has been spending millions trying to offset some of the hardship that people are experiencing. That money has to come back. The only way that happens is if our economies get back up and running.”
Mackey said: “The moneys generated by our hotels is going to be diminished. We are not going to get the type of monies as we did in the past because of social distancing. This gives us an opportunity to pivot into agriculture and fisheries sectors to pick up some of the slack in hotel industries.”
Mackey said that government and private sector needs to aggressively push the local agriculture sector and eliminate certain imports by as much as 50 per cent.
“We have to get way form just talking it. We have to move in that direction and encourage our farmers,” he said.
Mackey also suggested that local packing houses need to be privatized and a marketing component added.
