The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Co-operatives in collaboration with the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PMDU) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), hosted a workshop focused on the cocoa sector. The workshop was held on Thursday 3rd of October 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the conference room of the Department of Fisheries, Pointe Seraphine, Castries.

The aim of the workshop was to provide a platform for defining the vision and obtaining information geared towards the development of a strategy for increasing gains in the cocoa sector.  This will ultimately bridge the gap between what currently obtains and the untapped market. The participants of the one-day workshop comprised of local cocoa producers (farmers), officers from Ministry of Agriculture, Export St Lucia, Department of Economic Development, Transport and Civil Aviation, IICA, Brazilian Embassy and St Lucia Development Bank.

The cocoa sector has continued to demonstrate both economic and environmental resilience.  It is against this backdrop that the Ministry of Agriculture considered it crucial to develop a policy aimed at enhancing the cocoa sector. This will ultimately support other sustainable and systematic approaches, to secure the roadmap of for the enhancement of the cocoa sector.