Hon Claude E. S. Hogan
Friday, January 22, 2016
Today will be recorded in the annals of our Ministry of Agriculture as a most momentous and I daresay emotional day, at least for some members of staff. I am relatively new in this environment, but I can feel the Montserrat pride in this achievement. We should first pay homage to our own Caribbean Development Bank arrangement called a Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), which focuses on the sometimes little and not so little things that support life and livelihoods of ordinary people serving their nation. In the latter stages of completion, we must salute the European Union through Premier and Minister of Finance Hon Donaldson Romeo for giving generously of EU funds to procure all the equipment in this abattoir. It's not easy to get money from our Finance Minister so for him to come on board with the finances to complete this super-structure to me shows that his heart remains in the right place - looking after small businesses, the local people and parts of this island that make it liveable for many of us.
As your government, we welcome this abattoir in Montserrat as a genuine investment in our farming community. When I heard the project was called a Slaughterhouse, I felt a little put off, but the quality of the layout, the methodologies, equipment and technologies introduced into this place, leaves be staggered by the honour and I am also proud to have helped and now to open Montserrat's first Abbattoir. It was the final additions of this PDM Government, with very able technicians, which transformed this building into an Abbattoir.
My research has shown that project documents and proposals for a facility, such as what we are opening here today, were written and presented in many forms to many different funding facilities and donors over the past almost twenty years. The arguments put forward over the years have always been constant and included:
- this is a small island bouncing back from the devastating impacts of a volcano;
- an island with dreams of a thriving tourism industry and needing to feed our visitors properly to earn from consumption at home;
- an island where technicians take pride in feeding our own people with healthy wholesome foods to sustain livelihoods;
- where reducing our dependence on imports and ultimately developing a sustainable export market is an objective of all in our economy;
We understood that we needed to make the choice to dis-continue the slaughter of our animals (a primary resource) under a tree or in deteriorated and outdated makeshift slaughter units without any waste treatment facilities.
We continue to understand that Public health and safety is one of the most important arguments that could have been made for the building of this abbattoir. Backyard slaughtering of animals with intentions of providing meat for human consumption is unhygienic and can lead to food borne illnesses. This is an important consideration on Montserrat, an island which boasts the use of local meat in a tasty flavourful stew as its national dish - Goatwater. Goat-water is served at almost every formal and informal function on island and tourists are invited to try our national dish whenever and wherever possible. Can you imagine therefore the detrimental and far reaching impacts that could have occurred if just one tourist had to be hospitalized or medivacked because of the impacts of contaminated meat? Thank God we have come a long way from scraping an entire pig with spoons and knives of all sorts under a mango tree early in the morning before daybreak.
As Minister of Agriculture my passion has always been focused on improving the livelihoods of the people we serve. With my Ministry’s present efforts being channeled into improving and increasing the production of pork, mutton and lamb, it is now possible for significant growth in this sector with this abattoir. We hope to generate some revenue for our farmers, producers and Government by using this abbattoir. Today we are positively moving the country towards self-sufficiency in another agricultural commodity and the prospects for export to our neighbors is greatly enhanced. There will be more to come in our Agriculture Development Strategy and Marketing Plan which will be unveiled brand new in 2016. Let me take this opportunity to put DFID on notice that the high flying projects of which they are speaking very loudly, cannot offset this 1 step of securing the livelihoods of quite a few livestock farmers, which is there main mandate. I don't want to say what the high flying plans are, because I like all of them, but as our Soca Super Star Arrows sings, "man must Live."
As you will notice this abattoir has a room which may appear to have no purpose except for storage. This room is actually our processing room which will be out-fitted with processing tables and equipment such as: meat saws, a meat grinder, a meat dehydrator, a smoker, a patty maker and a vacuum sealer, once we have secured the necessary funding to procure/buy the equipment.
We have discovered a Dr Jane Guise living here on island quietly, but an expert well qualified to help us bring this processing business to our market. I have asked my PS to let us retain her services without undue delay. With equipment and management procedures in place we could in the near future be packaging the T-BONE steaks, and specified high value cuts of meat properly packaged and ready for sale using the skills of our Master Butcher Oral Watts and others. We are galvanizing the entire team, which had only but given up hope on this important meat business being properly done here in Montserrat, but nothing happens before its time. I recognize here one of our pioneers in the white meat business, Mr Norman Ryan, with whom I had worked in establishing what have now become a self-sufficient product of Montserrat - home grown chicken. Back then they said it was impossible! Import substitution couldn't last forever! It was not economical! Half of the chicks would die before they got here! Please don't listen to people speaking their own agenda as the negative of yours. This abattoir facility will also be capable of manufacturing products such as hamburger patties, sausages, hams etc. This will allow for a more profitable local and export market of Montserrat made products. We'll be moving our meat products up the value chain and into our local super-markets in packaging just as good as the imported ones. Ladies and gentlemen, "the good we do, we do unto ourselves and what goes around comes around."
So let me again express my heartfelt thank you to the Basic Needs Trust Fund of the CDB who recognized the soundness of our argument and was willing to provide the capital support in the amount of over 1 million EC dollars to construct this facility encouraged by my cousin the former agriculture Minister - Mr Joseph Taylor-Farrell; our Government of Montserrat to whom it fell to finance the cost of the tools and equipment that allows the abattoir to be operational; all other persons, institutions or companies who were instrumental in the fulfilling of an island’s dream abbattoir.
Thanks to John Ryan and his crew for taking the time and care along with international professionals and Ken Cassell who worked here. We're going to need to maintain this place using Turkey and his technicians who have honed their skills working alongside coaches in the wiring and installation works here at this Brades Abattoir of the Government of Montserrat, for the time being. We hope to bring private sector leadership and support on board at this Abattoir as we move forward and my PS has been so directed.
I would especially like to thank the technicians (past and present) within the Ministry who persevered in the fight to achieve this outcome. This was despite years of disappointment by rejection in seeking to identify a willing partner to finance this venture. I know their hearts are full of pride today as we take possession of this new abattoir facility which has been twenty years in the making.
Thank you for listening to me and on this 22nd day in the year of our Lord 2016, I Declare the Montserrat Abattoir Open for business.
