 Agriculture on the move. At this juncture the Ministry of Agriculture's programs is geared towards food and nutrition security. It is critical at this juncture that we focus in that direction, especially for soaring prices at the supermarkets and other markets around the island, and we know why. It is not something that we cause on ourselves. That is why we need to produce what we grow and eat what we grow. Like we say in the ministry, eat fresh St. Lucia's best. Every show from now on moving forward is geared towards our food and nutrition security. That is the mantra of the Ministry of Agriculture. That is the mantra of the Minister of Honorable Alfred Prospect moving forward. Every commodity that we have worked on, especially our mango festival, our banana festival, and recently there was a breadfruit and breadnut festival put on by the Anakin Church. All of this harmonizes what we call our food and nutrition security. Hello and welcome to the program, Agriculture on the Move. I am Philippe Sinney, your host. Today we are focusing on CMOS production. And with me here today is Mr, to my far right, Mr. Nimrod Bescom, who is the owner of CMOS Alive Inc. And next to him, a rose between two thorns is Ms. Prisker Charles, who is the owner of Xceler CMOS. Good day to both of you. I will start with you, Nimrod. You seems to be in this CMOS business for a while. Tell us your journey in the CMOS industry in St. Lucia. Alright, so that's a very long journey. Make it short. Yeah, well, basically I'm from Denver. I grew up playing around CMOS because I have a background diving and stuff. But then when I really got serious into CMOS, when I was in about 2001-2001, I started going to Parley with my aunt and some of the people from the community. And I saw them planting this thing on the Parley Islet. You know, and out of curiosity and troublesomeness, I started playing. And then by the time you know it, I ended up with a farm. Very interesting. I ended up with a CMOS farm. Alright, the journey took a while. For a few years, it was just a struggle, basically, because as you know, there wasn't really markets for CMOS, even locally. I mean, locals, everybody had that. Everybody could have just go and cook a little bit of CMOS, make some CMOS drinks, you know? So it was kind of difficult. But we got a break in around 2010, when the Ministry of Agriculture brought in the Spanish Dode with this new strain of CMOS. And nothing was growing like grass, wild. That was crazy. A growth on it. I mean, within six to eight weeks, this thing would have been about the length of my arm. Alright? Then with that, it presented its challenges because after a while, I ended up with a whole household of CMOS and nowhere to sell it. So I started moving about to CMOS, trying to get it in the supermarkets. I did CMOS gels. I ended up at Glass and some of the supermarkets around the island. But then that wasn't enough. So in 2017, 2016, 2017, this vlogger came to St. Lucia by the name of Tish Wonders. And she said she wanted to visit the farm. So I was like, you know what? You're there already, so we're going to use what you have. And she started making this video. She made this video and it kind of went viral on YouTube. And so that is what created the big buzz around St. Lucia CMOS. I also partnered with Chris Kailash. I would be wrong if I do not mention his name. I partnered with Chris Kailash in 2018, 2019. We started sending CMOS to Canada via a guy by the name of Akim Pier. You can look him up on YouTube. Very nice dude. And things just took off from there. So basically that's the story of how St. Lucia CMOS became popular. Wow, wow. Interesting, interesting. And of course, you got yourself associated with the Pralessimos farm. Yes, oh yes, I must, I must say that. That I must mention Pralessimos Farmers Association. It's like I always tell everybody, all of y'all, whenever I come to y'all, that's my mother. That's right. Because those people that I was going and fool around with are actually members of Pralessimos Farmers Association. Okay. And I am on their books as a member. Okay. Right. So, yeah, they are important, they are an important part to this story. Yes, definitely, I understand. Okay, let me go to Prisker now because we have so much to talk about. We have very little time. Prisker, tell us about yourselves. Are you involved with your farmer and your also processor? How did you get involved in Pralessimos production? Well, actually, I got involved during COVID when there was nothing else to do. No way to go nothing to do? No way to go nothing to do. So, well, the only place you could go is by the beach. So, when you go by the beach, spending your time there, you better just do something more important than just living in the sea. So, my husband decided to have a Simos Farm and I was like, okay, if you're going to have a Simos Farm, then I have to try and see what else or all what I can do with Simos. So, I started doing my research and reading, watching videos and stuff. And then I just decided, okay, I would go into the gummies because everybody else was doing jail and drinks and stuff. So, I just decided, okay, I would go into the gummies. Yeah, but before you get to the gummies, in terms of the actual production, the farming of Simos, how did you get yourself, I mean, did you get assistance? Did you get training from the Fisheries Department? We got training from Vaughan Syri. From Vaughan, okay. And so, and then you got to know what to do? Yes. Okay. And then from there, so, but how much Simos, and when did you began that? You said what, two years ago? Yes, two years ago, COVID. Okay. And then from there, what, moving on, did you sell the raw Simos or did you also do your own, your drinks before you did the gummies? Before I went, yes, I used to do the Simos drink and Simos punch. That's how I started. And you're the market for that? Yes. Okay. So, where is, where, where used to market? I used to sell my drinks and my Simo, and my Simos punch at JQ Small Road, Nibbe, because I also have a store at JQ Small Road. Okay. Okay. Very good. Very good. So, up to now, you're still doing your, your Simos punches, your drinks and stuff. Right. Okay. So, what got you into the, into the, the gummies now? I got into the gummies because everybody else was doing, like I said, gel and, and I wanted to be different, my like to be different. Okay. So, I started doing my research and then I started putting my ingredients together and then from there on, it was not perfect at the same time, first time, but I had a lot of challenges getting to, getting it to be what I wanted it to be. Okay. But as time goes by, it became better and the people, when I give people to sample, they used to tell me, okay, it's a good product, so I can continue. So, that gave me a boost. So, where do you market? I, like I said, I'm selling at JQ Small Road, Nibbe. And where else? I mean, I'm sure gummies, kids like gummies, eh? Well, yes, but a lot of people, the neighbors around, like when they have parties, children parties, they order from me, like I package it for them and then they put it in their children's party bags. So, that's how it started going out. People get into know about me and then it's doing well. Oh, good. Good. So, you intend to increase your market? Yes, I do. Okay. Well, I must tell you people, I, I sampled it. I'm sure Nimrod can tell you that. Yeah, it's great. It's nice. That will go far. That's, that's, that's a seller. So, I'm sure Nimrod is in the marketing business. So, I suppose you all can team up. But Nimrod, going back a bit, before I come to what you have done, that's why I think you have done an amazing job with the derivatives of CMOS. What were your challenges before you get to that stage? My challenge is trying to, basically, it was about getting yourself sold. Sold, I mean. That, that was the challenge. Getting yourself sold. Where do we sell it? Okay. And I remember coming to your office and every government office on the island looking for, for assistance with that type of thing. And I always tell people, it was an act of God. That is why we're here today. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because there was, it was like, you just knock in your head against a wall and there's nowhere to go. Okay. Now, coming from invest, I'm exporting Lucia. You heard that the assisting with the marketing of CMOS and they have done quite a lot as far as putting St. Lucia CMOS on the market. That is the dried CMOS. Okay. In your opinion, do you think that's the best way to go as far as looking at the value added? All right. On that avenue, that end, right now, there's an issue where we have a surplus of CMOS on the market. And we have to be realistic. If we're going to keep sending those amounts of CMOS out there, we're going to be having problems because after a while, things will slow down just like they have done right now. So what we need to be doing is going into the value added products. And I wish my good friend, Darian, was there. Yes. He would really go into that. We were ex pumped on that. Yes. What we need to do is to go into value added products, where we use less products or make more money. All right. And it opens up avenues where it could create a lot of employment, could generate a lot of employment. All right. For instance, what you see on this table right there is only just a little fraction of what we do. Okay. For instance, I have this young lady in Mario by the name of Yvonne Alexander who does my soaps, hair care, skincare, whatever you could think of with CMOS. All right. The possibilities with CMOS are endless. They're limitless basically. On this table, looking on this table, you'd see about almost 20 different products just by looking at the table. And every last thing there is a different product that could stand on its own. Okay. So I believe that wholesale CMOS is not the way to go. I used to be the biggest exporter of CMOS in San Lucia at one time. So I can tell you that it's not the way to go. So you're a millionaire? You're a millionaire in San Lucia? No, I'm not. I wish you nobody. Because I'm money, I'm exporter in San Lucia. Oh Lord. You don't have about $6 million worth. I mean, in a short piece of time. You see the vibe with that is you pay in the farmers. You buy the stuff from the farmers. You only get in a fraction of that. So the farmers are the millionaires, not me. But the products that you have here, I mean, how did you get to that point? Did you experiment? Who tell you that you can do 20 different commodities from CMOS? Well, there's a saying. Necessity is the murder of invention. Right. CMOS drinks have been around for a while. And then I again will go to CMOS Farmers Association. You have a lot of brilliant heads in there who do not get the recognition that they supposed to get. And I am one to give it. Okay. For instance, you had this lady by the name of Grita. Grita was a pioneer, you know. Yes. Why is she by the name today? She's in England right now. She's in England. Okay. Okay. I've got the I before you get into this we do for our break. Okay. You're watching agriculture on the move. Please stay tuned because we have a lot in store for you. The chemicals and hormones used to accelerate their growth. All the artificial flavoring sweeteners and colors to we consume and we don't spare a thought for the damage that they'll do. Think about the children. Think about the children. How will we save it? Cells and GMOs are not the solution. Use organic and join. Excessive agrochemical use, additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment. Join the Good Food Revolution. Grow, buy and consume organic. A message from Rise St. Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF Small Grants Program, UNDP. Welcome back to the program, Agriculture on the Move. Of course, we're talking about CMOS production in St. Lucia. That industry is growing and it's growing leaps and bounds. I just want to say to you we are going into a CMOS fiesta. We have had one a few years ago, six years ago in a very small way. There's a test, you know, but this time we're going to follow in a big, big, big, big way. You'll hear more about it as we start to put that program together and today we have Nimrod and also with Priska who are also involved in the production of value added to CMOS. So Nimrod, the little journey with Grita and the association in Prane, I mean there is a what do you call a processing plan there, right? Yeah. Was it built primarily for the production of CMOS? Yes, it was built primarily with the idea that you could use CMOS to make different products. Okay. So for instance, these fruit-flavored drinks, these are not my original ideas. All right? I got those ideas from CMOS Farmers Association. Like I said, my auntie Esther Peter, remember she was doing Vigamos? Vigamos, yes. She came from there also. So all of those ideas are just ideas that we're bringing back, all right? Instead of using the milk, we use the fruits. So for instance, you have the passion fruit-flavored CMOS in the corner over there and then you have the fruit punch on that side. Then you have my specialty right there, fix up tonic wine, that was just all me. All right? Basically, to sell the stuff, you have to do stuff to sell it. So I created this drink right there. It's a male enhancement drink. It's also good for the ladies, you know, but it's particularly male. Yes, it's like something like a magnum tonic wine. So which is your best seller there? Well, my best seller in St. Lucia would be this one right here. It's the male enhancement tonic, fix up male enhancement tonic. Yeah, I would like, I would let the guys to give me a zoom on that. And then we have the fix up tonic wine. Wow. All right? So what's that? What's it? It's a fix up tonic. So what? It's an energy drink? Yeah, it gives energy because of the calcane in there. Oh, so you have other additives in there? Yeah, so you have calcane, you have buhamadi, you have tabak jab, then you have shadow benny to help with the inflammation. Because as you know, most men suffer with a little bit of inflammation and they feel they have an issue. It's only inflammation. All right? So once you take off this little inflammation, you're working properly. And notice you have some capsules there too, what's that? Yeah, those are male enhancement capsules also. They are an eight day thingy. All right? So you start off on the first day, you take two, and then you take one a day afterwards. Okay. All right? Increases. But you're focusing only on the men? No, no, no, no, no. We just started working on the tunnel. So, yeah, we have my young lady, the only camera I'm sure she's looking to see. So we have the wound cleanser for the ladies, you know, to help them out if there are p-course and stuff of that nature. All right. And then we have a bunch of tinctures. So we have um, Gwenebathay, what they call kongkong kuli. You have plantain, tabak jab, sour soft extract. Wow. Seamos extract on the table right there. So basically, everything in there is mixed with Seamos extract. Okay? It's not the actual gel. It's where is it? But do you do anything, apart from the soaps, do you do anything for skin care? Yeah, we do soaps, we do shampoos, we do face masks, we do face toners, we do scrubs, we do the works. Where can we get that to buy? Is it in the supermarket tell us? No, it's not at the supermarket. So mostly people contact us on Facebook, you know, say, well, hey, I want X, Y, and Z, because I do a lot of advertising on Facebook, well, on social media, Instagram, Facebook, wherever, YouTube, wherever. All right. The young lady also does a lot of her own marketing and all. So you could get the stuff on Facebook. What I see here, is it certified by the Bureau of Standards? Everything on the table is certified by Bureau of Standards. Okay, great. And so where do you have your processing plant? Our processing plant is in Denry Buazholy Road. The thing is, the market here was so small that we had to try and penetrate markets out of San Lucia. So basically the focus was mainly on out of San Lucia. So people like Darian, with his website, would take a few hundred of them at the time to put on there. And it's going? Yeah, they go. A lot of my products are actually rebranded so the customers would send their labels and whatever we put them on and we send them out to them. So Piska, in addition to your drinks and your gummy bears, what else you have in mind moving forward? Moving forward, I am thinking of I want to see more sequels and the popsicles. For the kids? For the kids. I am more focused on the kids. So your kids driven? Kids driven. Okay, so how soon are you hoping to start that? Soon. Okay. So your processing plant, again, is it has a certificate? I mean, Bureau of Standards, you have not gone? So that will be your next move? That will be my next move. Yeah, proper labeling and stuff like that. So you can of course get a lot of history from Nimrod, they will guide you. And of course, you can speak to them, you know, and then you keep close contact. Yes, so at least they can guide you, you know. So how, in terms of your production of your fresh seamos, what is your production on the weekly bit? Do you have it every week? No, not every week. Okay. Because my husband is at work and he is like, he is here every other week or so. Oh, okay. All right. So how many persons in your area that involve the seamos as far as production, fresh production of seamos? Perhaps about 12. That's exactly where? That's in Mena in Moshe. Mena in Moshe. Okay. All right. And you'll have, what are your problems up there? Are you encountering any problems? I know pre-arresting is one of what, you know, are you? For the truth, I have not experienced that. Okay. We are not experienced. But I know in the early days. In the early days, yeah. Especially but during COVID, they had a big problem up in, in, in, in, in Praline. No, Opicon had that, a bigger. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So Opicon had a big one because, but then, because I remember we went to both places, but Opicon is, is the hardest hit, the hardest hit. Okay. Now we're moving into the seamos fiesta on October 16 in Fondo. Tell us what you want to do. What, what, only your gummy bears are you bringing? What, what else are you bringing to the fore, Priska? I am now focusing on the gummies because I know that will be the fastest seller. Yeah. Because there's a lot of children there. Because it's a family day. Yes. I'll, I'll be more focusing on the gummies. More gummies. Okay. All right. What about you, Emrod? Oh well, we'll bring what we have. So what, what, what, what you would want because your, what would be your signature drink that you would want people to come to your booth to sell? Because here's an opportunity to market yourself, you know. That's why I brought you all here, you know, to market yourselves and also to market, you know, the, the, the, the fears that we're having. All right. So this, this, those drinks that would be available along with the, we have party favors also. We have fruit flavored drinks and people could always come and get their fix up. I mean, we're there. So, so your, your choice product will be your meal enhancement? Nah, bro, I see that. That's what I say. You can come for everything. Everyone of them. It's your choice. I mean, you pick what you want. Okay. So apart from your, your marketing outside of St. Lucia, you go around, is it on the super market shelves here? We have certain stores that, that, well, bars mostly. And we're looking by the end of October to have it, those products, the drinks in every buy in St. Lucia. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So currently we're at Valle's place in, in, in Richfaw. The Richfaw gas station, no goods place in, in, in Nakhai. Natasha's place in Larisouz. In Denver, we're at Albert's place in Vufuapu by Aapa. By Aapa? Yeah. But, but yeah, I'm going to market the things for you. Aapa is easy, you know. By Aapa, in Monripo, we're at Chap's bar and one stop supermarket. What's the name of this dude? Survivors bar. And we're moving down the, you know, we'll be at Uptowns by the end of the month, at Uptown's liquor store, by the end of the month also. Okay. But moving forward people, as, as far as the industry is concerned, where do you think the, the ministry can assist? Do you think there are areas of strengthening, creating the environment for the growth of the industry? All right. That's a, that's a big question. Yeah. The ministry could assist in, in a host of ways. Okay. All right. Not just, not just one ministry, you know. I mean, commerce and agriculture should come together. All right. Marketing, I feel more can be done in the marketing. So what, what are you looking for in marketing? I mean, for our CMOS to be, not just, because in the beginning, our CMOS was being sold as a brand, St. Lucia CMOS. All right. Right now we're selling CMOS, basically. Okay. And that's what has, that's one of the big issues that we have. Oh, okay. All right. So I feel that if something could be done marketing-wise, where we could bring back everything on, then if that little brand, then everything that comes out is St. Lucia CMOS. I think that would be one of the catalysts that would take the, the, the industry to the next level, because right now we all need, we're selling less than 1% of the world CMOS. All right. We just a little rock, but there's so much more potential. If we market this thing, not just in the US, the US is our main market. If we go like to Europe, not just England, because that's our second beginning. Yes, yes, yes. I talk in Germany all over. So marketing would be, would be, would be the area that I think that more emphasis should be placed on. Okay. Great. Pascal, any final words for you before we end? Anything you want to say to the people out there who want to get into CMOS production and also to add value to it? Well, I think more people should go into byproducts of CMOS. Facts. A lot of people, everybody going into. Just the drinks. Just the drinks and so, but there are so many byproducts that we can do. And we have a lot of farmers. So there is no need to fear where you're going to source your CMOS from. True. Because you will be able to get the CMOS. The CMOS, yes, yes. Because farmers have CMOS at their homes and sometimes, sometimes you can hardly move because you have CMOS at home. All over the place. CMOS all over the place. So you will get enough CMOS to go ahead and do your byproducts. Okay, very good. So I mean, I guess more people should go into the byproducts of CMOS. Okay, very good. Well, as, as you know, we're going into this CMOS fiesta. And that'll be another way of another platform to tell Saint Lucia where we are. I mean, I was, I'm fascinated. We had this meeting there. And I only saw you brought one product. I mean, I'm fascinated by this. And I'm sure people are fascinated by this. So come on the 16th of October at the Fodor National Park. You will be surprised to see the various derivatives from CMOS. The school children are going to be there. There'll be a competition among the schools. Hopefully, if all goes well. And there will be also, there'll also be a CMOS, what we call a recipe book, because again, we would want to include persons who are going to be there to showcase what the signature product in that book and that book we will be available. Hopefully, if all goes well on that day. So your name will be in there, your product will be in there. So that's another platform for marketing. Okay. So your gummy bears will be there, trust me. So somebody will be coming to you all. So those persons will be participating. We are hoping that you will be there. You will see an exhibition. There'll be an exhibition booth showcasing, you know, the premium commodities coming from people like my Nimrod hair and also my gummy bear lady there. And the others out there, you know, from next week I'm bringing some more people here. So you will see what's happening. So again, thank you for viewing the program. And we hope to see you at Fondo on October 16th. I'm Philip Sidney saying goodbye.