 Last year, a St. Lucia delegation led by the Agriculture Minister embarked on a quest to secure new and existing banana markets in order to assure the prosperity of St. Lucia's banana sector. Following the most recent research efforts by Export St. Lucia on the opportunities for banana exporting throughout the region, the National Fair Trade Organization and Export St. Lucia have secured a new market in Antigua. The first shipment containing 460 boxes that arrived on the shores of Antigua last week proved to be a successful venture. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, Honourable Alfred Prosper, who was present to witness this momentous occasion, notes that while regional export has occurred between countries such as Antigua and Barbados, maintaining good quality and quantity of bananas remains critical to the sector's growth. I must say the quality of the fruits I saw was very encouraging and I'm really applauding the farmers for that because what Antigua is saying now that whilst we may be focusing a lot more on quality for the UK, they are also interested in quality and so we need now to not view the region as a lower quality type fruit in terms of its production but we need to ensure we work towards getting a quality of bananas that can go to the UK, the same quality can go to other countries in the region. Minister Prosper explains that during his visit he engaged in discussion with an established buyer on the possibility of using Antigua as a distribution hub for surrounding countries in the region. According to the Minister, the meeting elicited positive feedback due to the high level of interest shown. So the bananas would move from St. Lucia to Antigua but we were hoping that the buyers in Antigua would increase production in terms of quantities to be exact because currently we are now moving on average 2500 per week but we have asked for the possibility of increasing it from that to maybe 8,000 because we think the opportunity exists between Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Martin, so our bananas now can get to that point where it can be placed in a ripening facility and this is one of the discussions we were having with one of the buyers. Why not establish a ripening facility in Antigua? Increased imports of our bananas to Antigua but distribute to St. Kitts, to St. Martin, St. Thomas etc. As the focus of the agriculture ministry remains on securing the existing banana export markets and expanding into new regional and international markets, farmers are encouraged to ensure that the quality of bananas they produce remains their highest priority. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anicia Antoine reporting.