est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Why Are We Not Exporting Coconut Water?

Submitted by St. George’s Dragon Barbados is struggling economically, with tourism numbers down and foreign exchange earnings accordingly reduced. The position is not helped by the decline in earnings from the off-shore sector and the sugar industry. There seems to be no end in sight to the debate about whether we can modernise the sugar…

,
Submitted by St. George’s Dragon
Coconut
Coconut Water in demand in the USA and UK

Barbados is struggling economically, with tourism numbers down and foreign exchange earnings accordingly reduced. The position is not helped by the decline in earnings from the off-shore sector and the sugar industry. There seems to be no end in sight to the debate about whether we can modernise the sugar industry, and nothing seems to be happening to build up agriculture, either in order to export and earn foreign currency, or feed ourselves and save foreign import costs.

One possible route to earning foreign exchange which I have not even heard mentioned is the production and sale of coconut water. Sales in the USA and UK are booming and Rihanna is the marketing face of one brand of coconut water in the UK – see LINK.

I am conscious that our worst fault is to talk about things we could do, then to do nothing. Surely, though, it must be worth investigating whether we could ride the back of the worldwide interest in coconut water? We would need to learn from our experience in sugar and not go into bulk exports thereby allowing someone else make the profit by branding, packaging and selling. Instead, we would need to market a “Barbados” brand and pasteurise and can it here. Government should not be involved. If they are nothing will happen – as with the Sea Island cotton project.

I have the prime candidate to take it on – Banks. Their business is drinks production. They have new pasteurisation and bottling/canning facilities and they know how to export.

What about it Mr Cozier?

201 responses to “Why Are We Not Exporting Coconut Water?”

  1. Well Well.file:///home/gabz/Desktop/images.jpeg Avatar
    Well Well.file:///home/gabz/Desktop/images.jpeg

    The Surinamese are not just talking the talk, but they are walking the walk, even when it comes to greening.

  2. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @Well Well,Bush tea, Dr. Love and ready done.
    For information the first thing to do is contact UWI Chemistry department and dr. Tinto the head of the department. there are a number of PhD theses that have been written on the unique compounds isolated from these plants. There is also an ongoing research programme with a company from California that is looking into these compounds. It must be remembered that

    department, and Dr. Tinto who is (or was,I’m not sure whether he still is) but they can guide you to a number of PhD theses what were writtten on the organic chemistry of a number of local bushes (herbs; not ganga) and unique compounds isolated from them There is also an ongoing research programme with a company in California (there isa barbadian connection there) that is looking into the medicinal properties of a number of these plants. It is important to remember that the isolation of compounds tha the testing of the medicinal value of the compounds isolated can take from ten to twenty years before a pharmaceutical

  3. ac Avatar
    ac

    Yeah bushtea and guess what ……i got a fresh brew of nettle bush tea mixed wid peppermint and honey to pour all ova yuh scrawny as…s

  4. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    (having problems with the blog space) product is brought from the point of being isolated to the approval for use on humans. It takes a lot of research money also and unless there is an association with a well funded company, and research grants are obtained it is extremely difficult to bring it to fruition. the reason you may not find this information on the web, other than the subject of the thesis, is that these things are protected by copyright, so permisssion would have to be obtained to ggain access to it. But contact the Chemistry department at Cave Hill.

  5. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Alvin………………….thanks for the info, Readydone was looking for the information, I have a Trini friend in the chemistry lab there, so I knew there was supposed to be something going on with the herbal bushes, but I had lost track………..

  6. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    David,
    I have decided to rename people like Bushie, Islandgal etc by a single word “CAN”T” that extra letter makes the difference between Bajans and a lot of other people. When Bajans say Can’t, others asy CAN and try, and very often they succeed while Bajans are still in the CAN’T mindset. We export or at least produce over suxty thousand tons of sugar every year that is exported in bulk. If half of that was turned into specialty sugar, exported in specialty packaging, and sold to the WORLD, which can be done because it would all be sold, at a higher price than what we get for the bulk sugar, we would be making a lot more in foreign exchange. Thirty thousand tons in specialty packagingin can be sold world wide easily. Laugh at me again. Guyana does it with demerara sugar that is far inferior to ours. I know because I have some in my cupboard becaus I could not get any Bajan sugar.

  7. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Alvin…………..I have a friend with a company in Europe who has been repackaging bajan sugar for years and selling it as a specialty sugar, separate and distinct from what the government is exporting, and these are Europeans.

  8. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @Well Well,
    Professor is Trinidadian.He is very much into this topic. In the Microbiology Department (where I studied, there is research on going into the possible antibacterial properties of a number of marine plants and animals (sponges and other species) In defense of the UWI, there is a lot of good work taking place there in all spheres, but when the public is invited to visit and see the displays etc the public response is very laid back, and yet the same public complains that they can’t see the benefits of the University. Each PhD student has to be involved in original research, so every year there is a large amount of original material produced.

  9. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @Well
    The blog should read Professor Tinto is a Trinidadian.
    Further Re. American Patent on the Black Belly Sheep; Dr. Leroy McClean, former consul general in toronto dis his Ph.D thesis on the Genetics of the Black Belly sheep so as to show that the Barbadian Black Belly Sheep is a unique strain and that the ones in the United states is completely different from the Bajan Black Belly Sheep, You can contact him at BIDC in BarbadosAs I said there is a lot of good research emanating from Cave Hill.

  10. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Alvin…………..one gets tired from the attitudes, that is one of the reasons investors will think twice, it’s all about the attitudes, and rotten to the core attitudes do not help, but don’t fear, there will be a different mindset coming up.

  11. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Alvin…………but has Barbados patented the local black belly sheep?

  12. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    around and around and around me go, improve the tourism product, everything else is just wishful thinking

  13. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @Well Well,I am not sure whether the process has started, Leroy would be in a better position to say. Just asking laughed (as usual at my suggestion re. golden apples; here is another one if you don’t want to export golden apples in bulk, how about canning colden apple slices? You know like Pineapple slices, or pear, etc. Looking for an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. By the way isn’t there a Venture capital fund somewhere associated with the Small Business Association?

  14. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Alvin………….it would be done quicker if we could find the venture capitalist in Canada or the States and do it ourselves for all the run around we will get in Bim.

  15. Ready done Avatar
    Ready done

    @ Alvin Cummins thanks for the info. Professor Tinto and Dr. Leroy McClean are good people. between to two of them is all we really need to get the island in the right direction. I had the opportunity to meet both of them. in my very short stay at UWI. But the long and short of it is that when you have a brain like those two you need someone to translate their thoughts to something average people can understand.

    @ Well Well. “one gets tired from the attitudes” i wonder if we could find the root cause of this “island rat” mentality. i wonder if anyone of the older posters can pinpoint wat the cause is or when it start.

  16. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    YaggaRowe said:
    Yagga Rowe | June 3, 2013 at 4:05 PM |

    spouge gone
    reggae lives
    If you talk about starting something in Barbados that will benefit the island as whole once it is implemented off the ground and moving forward, there is always an IslandRat to tell you it will not work
    envy
    crabs in barrell
    seasoned slave
    vs
    newbie
    ___________________________________________

    Readydone………….I think Yagga Rowe says it best, we know the root cause, now i think re-education might have to straighten that out, I go on some blogs around the world and that crablike, islandrat like mentality that is directed to people because they dare to contribute without thinking that they have to ask permission, would get some of the bloggers on BU barred from commenting. If you don’t like what someone is saying or you are jealous, just read or don’t read, no one cares. The idea is to contribute as wisely as you know how.

  17. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Why don’t Bim export shoite ooops dem already got exported to Canada already. Well some people can’t get rid of the food in dem craw and only regurgitating it over and over.

  18. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    From time to time I meet with Friends at Starbucks for coffee. Not much of a coffee drinker but must have cream and sugar to consume it, the raw Hawaiian sugar in it impresses me, encourages me to drink and enjoy it. They call it sugar in the raw. It is a darker color than white sugar, so some of the natural molasses has been contained in it – that’s what consumers should think. Starbucks, an American coffee company has locations all over the world: Japan, United Kingdom, South America, Russia too. Starbucks is continuing to grow, likewise that Hawaiian sugar company. Barbados like that Hawaiian sugar company could and should make itself noticed. Must do something in a hurry, it’s days are getting shorter. Prime Minister Stewart is not talking neither is Dr. Leslie Worrell.

  19. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The only pure bottled coconut water sold in Canada is from Jamaica.It is sold frozen solid although some Caribbean restaurants will thaw it out before selling it.

    The canned, bottled and pasteurized coconut water from Brazil and Thailand does not taste good enough for my liking so I now only buy the real pure coconut water.

    The Jamaicans are satisfying a niche market. They have also “branded” their belly pumpkin and selling it in the 3 largest supermarket chains in Toronto.

    If yuh cant beat dum join dum. Trying to reinvent the wheel is folly.

  20. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    The frozen coconut water in Canada does taste fresh and I noticed the belly pumpkin, those who live in Canada realize that at certain times you don’t get pumpkin in the supermarkets, may be lucky to get it in China Town, Barbados has a lovely belly pumpkin.

  21. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    Well Well . . . . . . . . . . Patent for blackbelly sheep registers to an American Group, The Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Association International (BBSAI). Sad,Barbados missed that opportunity.

  22. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Island girl ,the world is more interested in black ass than black belly. china produces the most cotton and cheaper, thousands of your acres have gone from agricultural to housing, the water quality is under threat ,new bugs and plants are a plane ride or ship container away you are one of the most populated places by kilometer around. The crap may have gone to Canada but they are reaping the benefits of that move now. If I can make one suggestion maybe if more of your people keep it in their pants maybe you will have a little more elbow room

  23. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Look…………..i was trying to find out, some of them are so busy being IslandRat for the world to see they would not know neither do they care that they have lost out on everything even their damn four foot sheep.

  24. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    That would be four hooves sheep.

  25. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    So i guess if they want to patent the local sheep that is on the island, they cannot call it Black Belly Sheep, maybe they can call it IslandRat.

  26. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Lawson you speaking to the wrong person, I never mentioned anything black belly nor black ass, nor cotton. It is people like well smell who got a craw in dem throat. And who de ass is you to talk about keeping it in dem pants? What are you speaking about my dear? Your dick??

  27. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    Correct, they cannot call it Black Belly Sheep, anything but that.

  28. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Island I hope you look at least half as sexy as you sound … (Bush Tea sleeping ..)

  29. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Look, apparently they cannot include the name Barbados either, hm, hm, hm.

  30. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    IslandRat should not be a problem, don’t think anyone has patented that yet.

  31. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Ha ha WW … you be funny ha ha ha

    I think Jamaica would probably do well with exports of frozen sperm and ovaries from athletes …

  32. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Baf………..Jamaicans are an innovative people, they would be billionaires if they consider that and don’t think it’s morally wrong. I believe I heard somewhere where Barbados also froze the local sheep sperm, i would not want to call it by the name patented by another country, that freezing of sperm should also bring in some foreign exchange.

  33. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    I am a horse person. I like stallions but my favorite is the Tennessee Walker. I like that running walk they have. Patent name belongs to the United States, Tennesee Walkering Horse Breeers Assoc (TWHBA). The Tennesee Walker Horse name could have belonged to someone else but belongs to TWHBA in the United States. The Black Belly Sheep name could have belonged to Barbados but belongs to BBSAI in the United States.

  34. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Baf………..Jamaica would have to freeze the female athletes eggs, females carry eggs, i don’t think just the ovaries alone would work.

  35. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    I actually meant eggs … cant believe I said ovaries .. HA HA HA

  36. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Baf…………with the world as it is, you never know, ovaries may soon become a commodity.

  37. JUST ASKING Avatar
    JUST ASKING

    Why Are We Not Exporting Coconut Water?

    Because Bajans are Cunts nuh
    Wha’ yuh think ?
    They are the biggest assholes in the world
    Look how foolish Bajans iz
    (1) They want everybody that going to Secondary school to go to one School-Harsun Kolij -Idiots !
    (2) They vote for a ignorant DLP Government in power as if it is the same DLP group that –extended–Free Education, (they did not start it –they extended it-)–Idiots
    (3) They feel that politicians are their masters ?
    (4) They are mendicant and always looking for hand outs somebody to –” gi muh sain”
    (5) They want $1500 hairdos for Reggae but cant pay a dollar for busfare—-Idiots !!
    (4) They do not support their own in any meaningful way–Look at Suki King , Rihanna,
    (5) They feel that one man should win all the time—-their man whether he good or not

  38. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Just asking…..behave yuhself nuh…STOP speaking de trut nuh? Yuh got muh laffing muh belly off. LOLL

  39. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Just asking …by the way…you like yuh went tah school at de stan pipe cudear yuh mek a mistake counting. After 5 comes 6 LOLL

  40. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Just Asking

    I would seriously like to be your friend .. Help mah nah ..

  41. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    Why di I allow people like Just asking, islandgal, Look and of course BAF who make moronic comments when ther should be serious discussion when serious subjects are brought to this forum. I lnly wish you could see mirror images of yourelves

  42. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Me be ugly … Next subject in line

  43. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    island girl I am sorry I mistook what you printed, please do not take this as any type of flirtation…I would not want to get your hopes up ..unlike BAFBFP .. .if you see me with a large woman I am holding her for the police

  44. ready done Avatar
    ready done

    What is the worst type of island rat? The type that can only call people names and say that nutin can happen because of other island rats.

  45. Rosemary Parkinson Avatar
    Rosemary Parkinson

    Perhaps whenever the great minds on this blog decide what would be the best product to export out of Barbados…this information below might come in handy. Have a feeling coconuts might not work unless someone comes up with a coconut that does not grow more than say 4 ft but produced enormous fruit…and I guess all those amazing minds at UWI could easily get that done.

    I love my island indeed…we get on blogs and we scream and shout at each other…even go as far as saying how negative we are as a people which is truly amazing when instead of positive forward thinking and coming up with solutions that such a blog could actually achieve…we insult and put down and repeat over and and over what a lot of ignorant people we are…I heard someone wrote in another blog something to the effect “who is this Rosemary Parkinson” and “has she ever been raped”…charming whoever that was. Needless to say I did not look on the particular blog nor will I evah respond to such crassness. Sad that BU has people that reach that level of thinking…but it is a free blog. And this is good. But when something like that happens, I do believe it should be taken seriously and the perpetrator informed in no uncertain terms that these type of postings could have serious implications for them.

    Maybe I am not a UWI Phd with a thesis but to me it does not take a rocket scientist to understand our food security position. And before we consider having food of any kind to export (apart from beautiful dark healthy Muscovado sugar at a premium price AFTER we deal with our own consumption so we do not have to import dirty sugar from anywhere else) why not first and foremost solve the mystery of how to reduce our own food bill which is enormous. I have spoken of this so much it seems like repetition but if it is repetition that we require to get our brains to activate, then so be it.

    By producing our own food, we would save so much US money leaving the country…and therefore our economy would be stable, certainly more stable than it is today, and if we do this in a clean and organic way…our health bill will also be reduced…we would be self-sufficient in fresh food and our food manufacturers can produce real Bajan products instead of having to import in bulk the ingredients for their requirements and then labelling 100% Bajan! Once the local demand is satisfied, these products in gorgeous bright and colourful labels, exotic eff you please, perhaps with parts of the island depicted on same, can then be exported where there is demand…first we will have more people employed in every aspect of such from creatives to design labels and bottles to workers in the factory itself…secondly, if everything sent out has Barbados written on it…the name patented so that others living abroad cannot call their products Barbados or Bajan….this will save money for the government in having to promote the island. I see documentaries and books with recipes about our foods…videographers and printers getting more work! Restaurants thriving on local and visitors coming to taste ours.

    I am no farmer nor do I have the money to invest in such a thing but if I was and did…I would simply work on the idea that 3 acres of land can give me tons of food if organized properly…check the links below out for instance…and believe you me there is more than a ton of information on the net…so as I said seems like this is a no-brainer..but then…hmmmm.

    Things that surprise: (1) Barbados has farmers, (2) we have computers and internet technology that can keep all farmers in touch with each other so they should be able to get together and sort out who farming what, (3) we have an Agricultural Ministry that should have a complete and total database and who could be informing farmers on who should be growing what too so as to stop gluts of one commodity and scarcity of another….oh! sorry! I forgot…we fight with each other and say the words “will not” or “cannot not” so many times we believe it (4) WE DO HAVE ENOUGH FARM LAND.

    I repeat check the links below for starters. What we do not have is how to use it efficiently it appears. Instead we have farmers that grow carrots only ’till we are “carrotted” out or tomatoes only that have to be left to rot on the ground (have seen it…in fact the other day collected off the ground at least 10 pounds of tomatoes for free – got permission so don’t go there – and went home and made copious amount of salad for myself and sauce for later consumption in stews et al)…we have those who seeing that one farmer had a successful crop with lettuce, then immediately goes into intense competition and produces more lettuce than God, so we have a lettuce glut instead of “boing, boing boing” “light bulb turns on” and “wow” grows something no one else is growing.

    Of course, the above growing enough food for all of us would take diversity and God forbid communication and togetherness. And honestly I am tired of hearing about praedial larceny cause there is a quick answer to that too let me tell ya…that certainly does not take an intelligent mind to work out and I swear after one thieving evening, the thieves will do it no mo…use ya head and think of some great ways to stop this nonsense…quietly and efficiently. Ya might need a little co-operation from the police but when dem starve out ’cause food scarce, I have a feeling they will!! Just joking here. But this situation must have a solution, really.

    http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=F5B734F84273329DED4DB4AE7A010739

    There is also another idea to go with the above…pass a law that every single household should have at least two fruit trees of their choice in the yard…anything food. I say pass a law because we cannot seem to understand that when the food done from abroad…we cannot eat bougainvillea nor crotons and cement with ethanol sauce is not as tasty as peas and rice.

    …and then there is this. Take the enormous car park by Cheapside market that seems to be always empty…and do this with it.

    http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130603-city-farms-to-feed-a-hungry-world

    Meanwhile I am growing 10 different kinds of herbs in my little patio 10′ x 10′ approx. (drinking a lot of healthy tea from them too), cabbage, pumpkin, passion fruit. And will keep on adding a few things as I go along. I try my best to encourage farmers and shop at Cheapside Market as much as I can. And pray that farmers will start to talk to each other and work together to make a clean Barbados. Bless.

    …AND PERHAPS IF YOU CARE ABOUT OUR LAND…YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIGN THIS PETITION…NOT AT ALL POLITICAL IT IS SIMPLY JUST FOR OUR HEALTH…THE WORLD IS TALKING ABOUT GMO AND ORGANIC…WE SHOULD NOT BE LEFT BEHIND FOR MONSANTO TO DUMP WHAT OTHERS DO NOT WANT ON TO THIS ISLAND OR THE REST OF THE CARIBBEAN.

    http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/CLEAN_UP_BARBADOS_NO_TO_MONSANTO_YES_TO_ORGANIC/?fcAByeb&pv=2

  46. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Now why would we want to export coconuts or coconut water? Coconuts are some of the healthiest things around…
    Premium coconut oil cannot be bettered by any other vegetable oil. Every shoite about the coconut is a keeper….

    Wunna ain’t see the Chinese does export their nasty water to Barbados? The USA does export their nasty meat and tainted GM goods
    ….Wuh even Trickidad does dump their nasty sugar drinks pon we..and in return wunna want to export one of the BEST products bout here…? …and then Bushie got to scrunt?
    …AT ALL!!

    Let us export SUGAR….all of it.
    Let us export rum…all
    Let us export politicians – even if only to Dodds
    Let us keep Alvin Cummins (…and any other ac) exported
    …and DEFINITELY let us export lawyers – ALL of the F*€#¥RS – to wherever…. and BAN them from Barbados (Amused excepted of course, but only on account of SWMBO 🙂 )

    …but NOT coconuts. Let we keep dem….

  47. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Readydone……………you never witnessed when an IslandRat is really cornered have you??

    In saying that, Barbados does not have enough coconut water to export, but they could definitely listen to the brilliant, innovative and creative minds who reside on the island and come up with feasible and the most viable ideas.

  48. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926-2013 AND SEE MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926-2013 AND SEE MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS

    Export coconut water @ madness to infect the world with corruption? It must be in the water,,,
    Bottle of water will then cost Bajans 20$bds at the side of the road and 22$bds in the stores. People will be then shooting each other off the tress.

  49. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Plantation…………they really have to look at areas of export, maybe not coconut water, but something, or the Chinese have $3Billion dollars for the region they could ask them for a $1Billion dollar additional loan that Sinckler is looking for and just deal with the risks involved, they already don’t have much of anything belonging to the taxpayers on the island, not much more to lose, if the name Barbados has been patented by someone else while they bicker among themselves about petty nonsense and most people are not even aware of this, what more is there for them to lose??

  50. Yagga Rowe Avatar
    Yagga Rowe

    over supply of milk ?
    export
    milk based
    milked breadfruits in guava sauce

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