 The year 2020 has been a challenging one the world over, and for St. Lucia, the situation is no different. The government of St. Lucia has been confronted with a number of challenges with the coronavirus tipping the skills. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, reflecting on the past year, highlighted the many challenges and triumphs for the sector. Committee Mark has the details. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, Hon. Isikal Joseph, explained that the COVID-19 pandemic is not the only thing affecting the agriculture sector. Speaking to the banana industry, the minister disclosed that both Winfresh UK and Winfresh WI have gone into receivership. Despite the situation, St. Lucia remains the only shareholder still exporting bananas to the UK. Having said this, the minister explained that opportunities also exist. Opportunities that the Ministry of Agriculture will be exploring. This year, we have to really focus, especially early in the year, have to focus as to how we restructure this industry and for us to continue to build the confidence of the farmers, members who are still involved in the banana industry. I'm sure you would agree and you would realize and generally St. Lucia would realize and agree that since we came in in 2016, the project that we put in place, we have seen benefits. We have seen more farmers get back into production. We have seen the acreages increase. So that is a sign that the farmers are buying into the policy as it pertains to that industry. But of course, like you would know, if you put it in your extension hat, one of the main things or the main challenges for us to continue and for farmers to continue is a reliable market. And if the market is not then giving support to the farmers on a timely basis and if farmers are not being paid on a timely basis, that can be very discouraging. The Ministry of Agriculture has taken the lessons learned with the closure of the Winfresh entities seriously and denoted that it cannot be business as usual. Closing closely at another entity, the National Fair Trade Organization, NFTU, Minister Honourable Jules, have said the mode of operation must change. The Cabinet, under the leadership of the Honourable Prime Minister, gives financial support on many occasions to the NFTU. But Cabineters were saying since the situation with Winfresh, Cabinet are saying, look, the time has come for us to understand and for farmers to understand, for the leadership of the NFTU to understand that they should not seek the government as a cash cow, right? Each time things go bad, run the government for money and the management of the organization is not performing to a level that we are satisfied with. The Ministry of Agriculture is committed to working with the entity for the betterment of all stakeholders.