Saint Lucia businessman Rayneau Gajadhar is discussing selling agricultural produce to the Sandals resort, which is due to open in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on March 27.
Gajadhar has launched the agricultural exports company Rayneau Industries Limited.
The company intends to become the aggregator for agricultural products in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
However, Gajadhar told St. Lucia Times there was yet to be a deal to supply Sandals, and no agreement was in place.
“We are in negotiations,” he explained.
“Like any other location we believe will purchase the product from us, we have approached them,” Gajadhar disclosed.
Over a year ago, Rayneau Industries Limited started buying and redistributing all agricultural products in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Gajadhar explained that since Geest Industries, regional farmers had not had a good agricultural product aggregator, although the focus was on diversification away from bananas.
Nevertheless, he told St. Lucia Times Vincentian Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar was ‘very aggressive’ in ensuring the best for farmers.
“After discussions with him, we decided that I would purchase all agricultural products and redistribute them,” the Saint Lucia businessman explained.
“The difference with our model is that we are buying all agricultural products. We are not looking for only grade one,” Gajadhar stated.
He said the reason was that some farmers might be unable to produce to a particular standard.
However, while buying all the agricultural produce, Gajadhar said his company would not pay the same price for all quality grades.
“We are now sorting it and distributing it to the various clients based on what they are willing to accept,” he declared.
Gajadhar said the initiative has worked very well.
“The most interesting part of it is that the farmers get paid instantly. It’s not like you are bringing your goods and you have to wait until tomorrow to get paid,” the Saint Lucia businessman said.
He revealed that the Vincentian Agriculture Minister was excited about it and many farmers were happy.
You know what that interview with Tim shows, it shows that having money does not mean you are intelligent nor does it show that you are a humble honest man.
Mate so smart but I knew that was coming a long time he will buy from the farmers cheaply and go sell it for twice the value. Now St Lucians should cut the middle man and do straight to sandals. Them money man think their to smart. You know lucians should do make money man give them free fertiliser and chemicals and then sell for him.
The 3 farmers in svg can easily fall for mate tricks. The thousands in slu is a whole other story! We eh stoopid.
Business is about making a profit (don’t trust) the man on top will capitalize at chances given.
You three commentators above do not make sense.
The man is very intelligent, a rare breed in these times, such thinking seems to be ahead of most of you. You have a man, I believe has more Brains than the lot of them in the House of Representation today; so to you all I say: ‘ beware the Ides of March ‘ …. A Lucian indeed.
@”Dont trust”, your commercial astuteness!
Farmers are getting frustrated in St Lucia. The plantain and macarbo thieves like to steal it when it is very young . A farmer can’t even get a crop anymore because thieves are stealing it…. Food thieves…
Why so much negativity ? The man is providing a needed market to sell all agricultural produce which is your choice whether to utilize it or not. Why are those nuts killing the seed before it grows ? What alternatives to those nuts have. How can we prosper in that kind of environment ?
They have to be thinking of value added products at this point. For the population. Not just sandals. The tourists have certain taste. To supply them beyond lettuce and cabbage is not quite feasible unless you think out of the box
I much prefer to read of POSITIVE SOLUTIONS instead of negativity. Rayneau is a smart and intuitive individual and should be given a chance to prove himself. If he wins, fine. If his plan does not work – at least he tried. Can anyone beat that? If he has the means and market to supply SVG, he can by all his means. He sees a hole in the market, he’s going for it. cut him some slack – it’s HIS idea – not yours!
Some of you Lucians are too much …every one who goes in to business wants to make a profit. Therefore, whoever will be involved in this transaction needs to ensure that they too make a profit…it is that simple.
There are many St Lucians with the same idea and I would rather A St Lucian than the people that have stolen our foods and sell it cheap the St Lucian people,. Too many of them come to St Lucia and steal our livestocks, vegetables, cinder blocks, etc.at nights… Remember Billy be at nights? Their Families are living off the farmers of St Lucia.. The came to my island with only one agenda… Stealing…Probe this guy and find out how he became where he is at….I endorse my thoughts and know for a fact about my opinion..
A llison, I May not be the smartest, but you arent the sharpest. Alot of Caribbean Indians are here due to regional integration. Most Indians here migrated from Trinidad and South America. Same way you can find alot of Lucians who have established roots in the South of TnT.
Some of you all behave like you are Pure lucian yourselves. Too many of you people act like Lucians are only blacks from Africa. Most Saint Lucians are mixed with Indian. Just like in Trinidad you get alot of Chinese mixed people. While many of you are black people you all are not Africans, you just have African heritage. Africans don’t want you to refer to yourself as Africans as your bloodline isn’t pure.
African Americans on the other hand are Americans who came straight from Africa, not the Caribbean. Their bloodline is purer than that of the islanders, unless these Islanders originate from the North Islands. South islanders have been mixing and matching for generations upon generations. Most of your forefathers have unclaimed children with white British women or Indian Guyanese women when they were deployed!
This is a model which accepts all vegetation crops whether its the best top grade or second grade. We all know and understand that, surely? If you look at vegetables grown not all are created equal, some are wonky, some have imperfections, some small, some big. So it makes perfect sense to pay base on the quality of the product. Rayneau has the means, the connections to make it work. You can’t just rock up at the hotels hoping to sell your products. Unless you have connections in there and they are letting you in through the back door. What he is proposing is farmers get to sell all their products with the price based on the grade/quality of the products. That’s not new. No business will give you top price. So thank goodness the Vincentian Agricultural Minster ensured that his farmers received what is best outcome for his people. Rayneau uses the word to describe his dealing with Saboto as ‘aggressive ‘ meaning it was tough with Saboto, he was not having no wool pulled over his eye. In other words, Saboto said take all the products, top grade, low grade, pay the farmers straight away or no deal.
Business is aggressive. Sometimes you don’t always get what you want. but instead you concentrate on what can benefit those at the bottom of the ladder. It’s not always fair, show me a model that’s perfect agreement for both sides. Rayneau had no intention to pay for all grades, but Saboto was not having it. I could imagine table talks for negotiation, “look man just take all based on quality and pay my people straight away, they not going to wait. Take it or leave it.”
You see that’s why some of all you will never better yourselves because you just think businessman alright for himself, he is a thief, he rich enough all that nonsense. He has successed as a business man, why hate him for it. His work, his creative ideas, his connections, he made it and it takes alot to stay at the top. Business owners must be creative thinkers and monitor progress all the time and they do drive a hard bargain. Its business. What is wrong with that.
The UK supermarkets use to take all the best products and reject the low grade products. That’s because the UK shoppers are fussy only want perfect apples, perfect tomatos, perfect size. Until there was outrage that farmers were being treated badly. And now, you can buy wonky and imperfect fruits and vegetables for a lower price in selected supermarkets. You get a choice.
Farmers globally are facing challenging situations with profits versus supermarkets making record takings in price increases. If only the government of St Lucian could invest in farmers by implementing funds to support infrastructure and connections to sell to the hotels that would be beneficial to farmers. So along comes Rayneau, because he sees a gap in the market and he seize the moment. He acts decisively to encourage an opportunity to enter the hotel food industry. Instead of heavy reliance on imported goods.
Farmers work tirelessly to provide food while also caring for the land and nature. Their work is under valued and under paid. To achieve better outcomes they require more financial support. That’s not going to happen with all the uncertainty happening especially crime wave. So, it’s not difficult to see that farmers needs get pushed aside. At the end of the day what farmers really want is for fairer practices and better support. That’s what the Vincentian Agricultural Minster has negotiated with Rayneau. Farmers margins are so tiny, they cannot avoid to invest in more environmental sustainable systems. However, the government could do with investment for more homegrown food production as Guyanese Ali is trying to implement for the whole of the Caribbean. St Lucia reduce your import bills! It’s way to high.
You may not like Rayneau’s business ideas and dealing, it’s better than nothing. It’s survival of the fittest.