Kendal Plantation in St John, one of the island’s major dairy production facilities, is being sold for $25 million. And it seems, the likely buyer will be boosting the dairy facilities at the expansive property and focusing on food production.The real estate agent for the St John property D.O.S.C Realty (Barbados) is assuring Barbadians that the sale of the prime agricultural enterprise will not cause a dent in the island’s agriculture sector but, in fact will boost it significantly.“Most of the parties that are interested in purchasing that property want to ramp up and expand. So with the sale it is more about an improvement in the dairy industry more than a negative. The interested parties want to carry things further and they (the owners) have come to the decision that they don’t want to advance, they are winding down,” a representative of D.O.S.C told Barbados TODAY on Wednesday.
Barbadians are not known for splurging, as too many in our society do not have the level of disposable income that would predispose them to such luxuries.Given the austere and unpredictable times that we are living in, people are more prone to setting aside what excess funds they may have for the inevitable rainy days.The events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in massive, sudden, and sharp job losses have made most citizens acutely aware of how easily their livelihoods can unravel.We have, of late, heard admissions from Government officials that our unemployment rate reached a staggering 40 per cent or more during the height of the pandemic in 2020/2021.Unemployment that rises to such high levels, would have had a major ripple effect, not only on the economy, but the psyche of the breadwinners that were impacted and their families.