The Taiwan Technical Mission continues to support the St Lucia Marketing Board by improving the quality of their packaging material. Through the use of this new packaging material, there has been approximately a 50 percent increase in the sale of items which have utilized the new package materials of the Marketing Board’s retail store. To this end, the Mission continues its mandate to enhance the efficiency of production-distribution supply chains in the fruit and vegetable sector. These post-COVID actions will surely strengthen the agricultural industry and specifically the agricultural supply chain of the Marketing Board in St Lucia.
The Taiwan Technical Mission in Saint Lucia and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Co-operatives have been collaborating to execute the enhancement of the efficiency of production-distribution supply chains in the fruit and vegetable sector project since 2019; more commonly known as the Seven Crop Project. Since the St Lucia Marketing Board is an important stakeholder on this project, and in order to increase efficiency in the fruit and vegetable production-distribution supply chain locally, there have been discussions with the members of staff as it relates to the project as this is one market in which farmers can target for their harvested produce.
The project marketing team which includes Marketing Specialist Ai-Lin Chen and Technical Marketing Officer Perlina Albert has assisted the Marketing Board to select the proper packaging materials to add value to the product to increase the economic value. Now, the marketing board will be providing fresh fruit bowls daily. Moreover, the marketing board has introduced this new and improved packaging material at their retail store in the form of biodegradable trays and clamshells to improve the quality of produce for sale and product life.
In addition to the assistance given to the Marketing Board, the Taiwan Technical Mission and the Seven Crop Project also strive to continue making Saint Lucia an environmentally conscious state as well as encouraging the Marketing Board to become much more environmentally conscious in order to aid farmers by bridging the gap between collection and distribution for smaller sized farmers.