 The Puales Seamos Farmers Association, guided by Export St. Lucia, have maintained their exports despite increased competition on the international market for the high-priced commodity. Details in this report. Export St. Lucia says the island Seamos still attracts a higher price than any other Seamos on the market, despite increased competition from Latin America and other Caribbean territories. However, some Seamos farmers on island have noted with anxiety a reduction in rates per pound since more players have entered this mariculture business internationally. CEO of Export St. Lucia, Sunita Daniel, weighs in on this concern. The international market price would go down because you have so many entrants to the market, now you would find that there would be complaints. So they have to decide on their own whether for their business model they should continue exporting Seamos or not. What we want to advise persons is that the market for Seamos remains, the demand for Seamos remains. What you should not expect, and I don't think any business person should really expect, is to get abnormally high prices for your Seamos. Export St. Lucia works with the Puales Seamos Farmers Association, and Daniel reports that the association maintains high standards in the market and turns a profit. We as a government agency have continued to work with our Seamos farmers, we continue to give them the support that they require, we continue working with them on their packaging and we continue working with them on the quality of product. The farmers we work with are selling their Seamos and they're making a profit. She encourages private entities operating Seamos farms and exporting to submit a quality product. We've had a lot of persons not exactly doing what they're supposed to do in terms of maintaining the standards, in terms of how the branding and the packaging of the product is supposed to be done. So the farmers we work with know the standards, they know the branding, they know the packaging requirements. A lot of persons have entered the market doing their own thing and so this is what would happen when they go on their own. The Export St. Lucia CEO laments that buyers have reported substandard Seamos coming from some private local entities that do not have any ties with her organization. This she says is impacting the sector's reputation. We know of persons who have exported substandard Seamos. We know distributors will send us pictures and tell us this is the Seamos we're getting. We don't know those persons. These are persons, private individuals who have gone out and sold Seamos and doing their own thing and the product they're selling is so substandard that is now affecting the entire St. Lucia Seamos brand. So we want to caution persons if you're entering the business to do it right. Daniel advises Seamos farmers who may have issues with production to seek guidance from the Department of Fisheries and for branding assistance, Export St. Lucia. St. Lucia is the first profitable cultivation of seaweeds in the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. For the Government Information Service, I am Jesse Leance reporting.