CATEGORY:ECONOMY/ MONEY ---------------------------- By Wallace J.A Inside Grenada correspondent Saturday January 27,2007 GRENADA – Nutmeg farmers in Grenada must be feeling that they are finally seeing some light at the end of the dark tunnel through which they have been travelling since Hurricane Ivan decimated the nutmeg stock on the island back in September, 2004. On Tuesday of this week (23 Jan.2007), Mr. Ramsey Rush, director of the Grenada Co-operative Nutmeg Association’s (GCNA) board of management, announced the proposed price increase at a press conference in St. George. According to Mr. Rush, the price that will be paid for dried nutmegs from February 01 is EC$3.00 per pound. This figure reflects an increase of forty cents. Fifty cents will be added to the price presently paid for a pound of green nutmegs, increasing the amount to EC$2.50 per pound. The price for mace, however, remains at EC$6.00 per pound. The increase in the price of nutmegs is expected to be assessed after a duration of three months. It is the hope of the GCNA that the price increase will result in more farmers returning to their lands in order to pick up the nutmegs and sell it to the Nutmeg Association so that a target of three million pounds of nutmegs for 2007 could be reached. After Hurricanes Ivan and Emily in 2004 and 2005 respectively, many of the nation’s nutmeg farmers became disenchanted with farming and many of them abandoned their lands and moved into the construction industry and in other areas where they envisaged fewer hardships and greater economic success. The construction boom in Grenada came about partly because people now want to build stronger homes that are hurricane resistant and partly because of the massive infrastructural work on the island resulting from Grenada’s determination to host matches in Cricket World Cup 2007, which is only days away.