 The idea of a parkhouse was conceived a few years ago but in July of 2019 there was a search for an appropriate and suitable location. The IRDC in Otso was one of those, the IRDC in Lakai, the Anche Black Bay and Farmers Cooperative and the Grace Belvey Farmers Cooperative but with the input of our Minister of Agriculture we decided that the parkhouse should be in the IRDC in Otso and we welcome that. The renovation of the parkhouse was funded fully by the government and people of Taiwan and the SLMB Solution Marketing Board invested heavily in the purchase of the equipment. It is my honor to welcome everyone to the opening of this parkhouse. The commencement of operations at this facility I think is going to greatly enhance the efficiency of the services of the marketing board and also allow us to pre-provide a service and produce of a higher standard and quality to our customers. The facility will not only serve or be of benefit to the Solution Marketing Board but I think to our farmers, this will be of great assistance to our farmers in allowing them or enabling them to enhance the quality of the produce that they deliver to the Solution Marketing Board and on a wider scale the public of Solution in general. The other facility we intend that other agencies would benefit from the use especially our exporters where they would be in a position to present to the customers a produce that they know is of a high standard and meet the requirements of the customers. So this facility I think will go a long way in allowing the further development as far as the agricultural sector is concerned. In conclusion, I just want to say on behalf of the Solution Marketing Board I will pay our gratitude to all who contributed to making this a reality and I know that you're going to be identified individually but I just want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Solution Marketing Board to express our gratitude for having selected this area or the Solution Marketing Board premises for the establishment of that facility. I want to thank you very much. Good afternoon. This is something that my agency, Export Solution, has seen and articulated was needed. I want to thank the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Honourable Ezekiel Joseph in particular for your quick action on this initiative after the need was brought to your attention. Undoubtedly our products and services are world-class. We can compete on any stage in quality and taste. One of our greatest challenges lies in the acquisition of regulatory standards for market entry. So we're speaking about HASAP, ISO, GAP, GMP, also not just the purposes of safety and best practices but allow us to access the most coveted markets. This parkhouse is a huge step in the right direction. Now our farmers have a facility where they can prepare their produce for domestic and international consumers. Export St. Lucia is currently working on replicating this feed so that a greater percentage of the farmer population will have access to such a facility. Our ability to reach the wider EU outside of the UK, the United States and other countries has just been fortified today. These countries have become increasingly wary over the last decade about the procedure and processes used in the preparation of food or anything for human or animal consumption. At the risk of sounding cliche, Covid has further exacerbated this insistence on minimizing or eradicating any risk of contamination along the production or production process. This completed initiative will give our buyers greater access to our processes and by extension our exporters greater reach. Lastly, on behalf of my board, the management and staff of Export St. Lucia and our clients, I would like to express heartfelt thanks to the government of St. Lucia and the government of the people of Republic of China, Taiwan through His Excellency, Peter Chen for this much-needed intervention. This really is a formidable step in the right and challenging export direction. Thank you. I believe that in the vision and in the planning that over the years when Minister Ezekiel has served as Minister of Agriculture, we have seen much progress in the area of development of the agricultural sector, not just in what we plant and what we grow and what we eat, but in sourcing out the right markets, in building the facilities that are required to take agriculture to the next level. Because as you develop as a society and as you grow and you become more financially capable, some people do not want to go and buy green bananas and peel the green bananas because they don't want their hands to stand. And so I am hoping that the pack house will be able to supply if it's five fingers of green bananas well peeled in a bag and that you can buy and just drop it in the pan and put it to cook. Because you see, we see it happening in other places and we limit our ability to source that market. Just like you buy rice and lentils and just wash it and cook it. Why can't we buy what we produce in St. Lucia and do the same in the preparation before it gets to the family table? And so I applaud the work being done. I applaud what is happening with export St. Lucia and I know that my constituency is benefiting directly when you help our young people to become exporters. They buy from the farmers from far and wide, not just within the community, but throughout St. Lucia. So the opening of this place today, this pack house, is welcome. And I think that it would be an encouragement to our farmers to continue to produce because markets are being sourced. The linkages between tourism and agriculture is strong. And while we are in the COVID environment, it gives us a good opportunity to prepare ourselves for the rebound of the market to get greater share of what is happening in this area. And so to my colleague minister, I applaud you and your department for the great work that is being done in the agricultural sector. So I applaud all that is being done and I would not end if I did not say once again on behalf of the government and people of St. Lucia and more so the constituents of Kastri Southeast, Mr. Ambassador, we would like you to convey our sincerest gratitude to the government and people of Taiwan for your continued support to the agricultural sector. And to all who are here, God bless you, and I look forward to a very profitable venture operating right here in this constituency. I thank you. It's great to be here with you all and in recent weeks I have been thrilled to walk into the supermarket not because of the Black Friday sales or the Christmas is just arrived in the corner, but because I have been able to see the advertisement boards and fires of the high quality fruits and vegetable section under the St. Lucia Taiwan bilateral seven crops project. Minister Izakeo Joseph, I want to thank the leadership and the enthusiasm of you and your team in implementing the seven crops project, including numerous capacity building workshops, eye catching farmers market, the agriculture intelligence system, the three-way station and the reason why we get here today the establishment of the packing house. It's the third time that Minister Guy Joseph and I have met within these two weeks. Every time we meet, it means that Taiwan and St. Lucia have either achieved another milestone or initiated another mutual beneficial project. For that, I thank you. And I also like to express my appreciation to other partners who came on board to make this project a success. Fruit and vegetable packing house will play an important role as part of an effort to improve produce grading, quality of packaging and the selling numbers of gradation. Not to mention, we have already observed the success of the packing house during the distribution of fresh produce relief packages to local communities and households in need by the government of St. Lucia. While the COVID-19 crisis is something that none of us could have ever imagined, the completion of the packing house will be a transformational moment to emerge from the pandemic stronger. The packing house is not only a house for agricultural products, it is a house for farmers for better life and for hope. I sincerely hope and wish this meaningful project will bring confidence to both farmers and customers and you will further strengthen the friendship and cooperation between our two people. Thank you and may we all stay safe and healthy. Today we are here to formally open the packing house. And why a packing house? And some of us has articulated the reason for a packing house. So I will go a little further because based on discussions coming out of a visit with my prime minister in the UK sometime in 2019, what we realize that apart from the potential for expanding our market share as it pertains to bananas, there's also a call for us to look at other crops. And the number of other crops and based on discussions with Miss Danielle and her team, there are other crops that have potential for us to export to the UK. But without the requisite facility, it would be very difficult for us. And that is why when the idea came and I had discussion with your head of technical mission, we saw it was necessary for us to construct this pack house, which would provide an opportunity for us both. First of all, to satisfy ourselves that we are producing quality products. We are producing healthy products, both for the local market, most importantly, and of course for the export market. So I'm happy that we have seen the completion of this facility. What we have told ourselves as a government, and that's a vision, whilst we are going to do the grading and the grade A's and the grade B's would go into the supermarkets, what happened to the grade C's? And as a government, we have again, Miss Danielle is very much involved in this. We had a very focused school feeding program. And the intention of the school feeding program was to see how we could expose our students to locally grown products. And of course, that would create a market, a reliable market for our farmers, because the school population is over 24,000 students at both secondary and primary schools. So here it is, there's a reliable market we can tap into, as you put it in, so the school feeding program. So the pack house now, and with financial marketing board being directly involved, would be responsible for the products that we don't see as grade A, not because it's bad, but because it's the shape or the size, we could have processed it and feed it into the school feeding program. And so that's why I'm happy that we today have seen the need to open this facility and to have it operational. So I'm happy we are here today in opening this pack house, and I'm really looking forward for the type of impact we know it can create as it pertains to the agricultural sector. Just quickly, I'm going to give you my power up at work. Today we are going to open the pack house. The pack house is a place that is financed by the government and people of Taiwan. I would like to say that based on the concerns of the government of Taiwan, we have accomplished this situation, and what we want to do before the government is to restructure the marketing board. And today we have decided to open the restructure marketing board that will benefit our recolors at LISI, which is a place for farmers to develop, and continue. And I'm happy that we can continue to make changes in the management of the marketing board, and continue to engage farmers to benefit the pack house. So in closing, I want to say thank you very much, and I'm really looking forward for more of our programs being implemented. And I want to say to you, Mr. Ambassador, likewise, I want to follow my colleague minister for you to express our appreciation. I'm not speaking as parliamentary representative now, I'm speaking as the minister responsible for agriculture. Our appreciation for the support that your government and people have given us over the years. And I'm very looking forward for us to continue this collaboration. And I'm sure the impact will be felt by all of us. So thank you very much.