PHILIPSBURG — Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten (Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication) presented a detailed roadmap towards the development of agriculture in a recent meeting of the parliament’s Permanent Committee of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry (CAFAH).
The minister pointed out that there is just 51,000 guilders allocated for agriculture in the 2025 budget. “We must recognize, if we really want to develop the sector, that we cannot continue to depend on external financing.”
Heyliger-Marten acknowledged that the tariff war started by American President Trump will have an effect on St. Maarten and that this will make it more urgent to diminish the country’s dependency on imports. “Higher import costs are passed on to consumers and businesses,” she said, warning against supply chain disruptions, potential delays and the emergence of more expensive alternatives. The tariffs will result in greater economic vulnerability and low income households will be the most affected.
Therefore, the minister said, St. Maarten must accelerate investments in the development of local agriculture. The plans of her ministry include support for agricultural loans, the formation of a national trade and resilience task force, strengthening consumer protection aimed at ensuring fair pricing and quality standards and positioning St. Maarten as a key distribution point.
Initiatives to strengthen ties with regional trade partners like St. Kitts and Nevis, Panama and Barbados are already underway and an expansion towards other jurisdictions like the Dominican Republic and Colombia are in the pipeline.
The focus on the agricultural sector includes a massive number of initiatives; among them are the establishment of ALF, an Agriculture, Lifestock and Fishery agency as an autonomous body, the promotion of local agriculture and healthy eating, streamlining licensing and tax systems for agri-businesses, training programs for the next generation agricultural professionals and the promotion of hydroponic farming.
One issue stayed out of the limelight but it was highlighted by someone who is not even a member of parliament: Tadzio Bervoets. In a letter to the editor, Bervoets pointed out that agriculture requires fertile land. “St. Maarten’s agricultural future depends on land protection. We need to be honest about one simple truth: there can be no farming – no real agriculture – without protecting the land first,” he wrote.
Bevoets did not stop there. He noted that you cannot grow food on damaged land and you cannot raise livestock if the water is polluted. “You can’t talk about agriculture and ignore what is happening to our natural areas. Right now, too many of these areas are being bulldozed, cleared or neglected. That has to change.”
And rightly so: “We have allowed years of unchecked development, illegal dumping and a lack of enforcement to break down the land we now say we want to farm. We need to put policies in place that protect our environment, and we need to enforce those policies – not just talk about them.”
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Related article:
No Farming Without Nature: Why Sint Maarten’s Agricultural Future Depends on Land Protection
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