 St. Lucia prepares to compete globally with honey as a national beekeeping meeting is held to launch the Bee City Project. The Bee City Project is an initiative funded by Compete Caribbean and managed by Export St. Lucia in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and seeks to holistically develop the beekeeping or apiculture industry. Held at the Grand Riviera Denry Human Resource Center, the meeting provided beekeepers with a breakdown of the project. Speaking at the launch was CEO of Export St. Lucia, Sunita Danielle, who highlighted some of the project objectives. The main objective of this project is to position St. Lucia's honey in the niche export markets through the development of a cluster model that aims to increase the competitiveness of each tick holder in the cluster. The objectives include differentiating St. Lucia's honey through identification of its unique characteristics, the geography, the forage, the taste and the quality. This will be maintained by a continuous process of quality assurance and certification of producers and their operations. The project seeks to build the capacity of the local industry stakeholders and new entrants to drive the expansion of the honey sector, including the support service organizations. The marketing efforts and support of an international marketing firm will assist the cluster in developing the profile of St. Lucia's honey and ensure that it reaches the most discerning of consumers in the best markets around the world. This initiative will cost $279,700 U.S. dollars, 20 percent of which will come from private sector partners, producers and trade promotion organizations. Greg Rollins, a representative from IECA, spoke about the organization's commitment to securing and developing a robust apiculture industry not only in St. Lucia but the entire Caribbean region. We recognize that St. Lucia has made significant progress in this industry. We know that St. Lucia is somewhat ahead of some of the other countries in the Caribbean and we therefore want to continue to push you to be the best that you can be in terms of your production but also to see how other countries in the Caribbean as well in the ECS region can benefit from St. Lucia's experience in this area. So we don't want you to underestimate what you're doing here. St. Lucia has made significant strides. We need to continue to push forward this industry which offers to earn viable foreign exchange but also seeks to support the development of a viable agricultural sector. According to the CEO from Export St. Lucia, this project seeks to develop our beekeeping industry from the life of the bee to the honey in your tea hair and internationally. We'll be looking at really improving the quality of honey from St. Lucia, helping beekeepers improve their capacity, increase their capacity. We'll be assisting them with certification of the St. Lucia honey. Export St. Lucia will be responsible for marketing the honey overseas. We've had some recent successes with some other products and so we want to use the experience to also work on the honey which is what is immediate for us. This project forms part of a wider vision and mandate as the government of St. Lucia seeks to diversify our agriculture sector and create viable income earning options for existing and new beekeepers in St. Lucia. This is also the opportune time for young persons seeking to start a business to explore the possibility of becoming a beekeeper. This city project is a two-year phased initiative. Reporting for the Office of the Prime Minister, I am Daniel Dubois.