CATEGORY:AGRICULTURE
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By Wallace J.A.
Inside Grenada Correspondent
Saturday October 28,2006


GRENADA - The Grenada Cocoa Association (GCA) is believed to be experiencing financial problems and has taken out an ad in one of the nation’s weekly newspapers to inform employees that they are unable to pay salaries this month.

Unconfirmed reports’ reaching this correspondent is that some workers had not received salaries for last month (September) either. This will make it two months is a row that GCA workers will have to do without remuneration. Some of these workers have been in the employment of the GCA for in excess of twenty years.

It is believed that the Grenada Cocoa Association was experiencing some rather challenging times before Hurricane Ivan struck the island in September 2004. This monster hurricane would have decimated the islands agricultural stock (along with almost everything else) and plunged the GCA into deeper financial crisis.

Many Grenadians are of the view that the GCA may have to seriously contemplate coming up with ‘separation packages’ for its workers which might be costly and would not help with the enhancement of the employment statistics in the country. Some are also suggesting that the Government of Grenada needs to intervene and offer some sort of financial assistance to the struggling association.

Earlier on this month, the Government of Grenada came to the assistance of another agricultural association, the Grenada Cooperative Nutmeg Association (GCNA), offering financial help to nutmeg workers (all over the island) who were employed with the association before 1999 but lost their jobs as a result of Hurricane Ivan. It is believed that a total of around EC$830,000.00 was paid out to these displaced workers.

At this time, there has not been any official statement from the Grenada Government as to whether assistance would be rendered to the GCA or in what capacity that assistance would be given.