Ministry of Agriculture aim to produce 200,000 Antigua Black Pineapple plants in major restoration drive

The Ministry of Agriculture said that it will be looking to resuscitate the amount of Antigua Black Pineapple through a plan to have at least 200,000 plants in stock within a few years.

Agriculture Minister Anthony Smith Junior revealed that the ministry has successfully multiplied an initial collection of just 25 original plant strains into thousands through a collaboration with laboratories in St Vincent.

“We understand what Antigua black pineapples mean to our people… we would have sent the tissue sample to the lab in St Vincent… from the 25 that would have sent down, we would have been able to multiply to know where we have 15,000 pineapple heads,” Smith said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Permanent Secretary Walter Christopher expounded further that while there are currently 11,000 plantlets on the ground, the ministry plans to plant 5,000 more next week with the goal to expand from the current 15,000 to approximately 200,000 plants.

When questioned about the distribution plan for the Black Pineapple, Director of Agriculture Gregory Bailey emphasized that the focus for the next two years will be strictly on multiplication rather than food production.

“It will be a much different approach. Within the next two years the focus will be on the production of plant material, not on food production because we need to get a certain amount of planting material in order to develop the industry,” Bailey explained.

He added “The crop duration itself is quite lengthy… you usually don’t get food within before 14 months, for example, even if you use hormones, so we are at the fundamental stage now where we are trying to generate the planting material in order to provide the foundation to build the sector.”

The ministry has also committed to installing necessary infrastructure at Cades Bay to protect the investment.

Permanent Secretary Christopher was keen to note that over the last six months, the Cabinet has provided more than $700,000 EC for interventions across various agricultural stations, including Cades Bay.