WHEN TROPICAL Storm Gustav devastated the local banana industry in 2008, JP Tropical Foods, the island's largest banana producer, suffered a major setback, to the extent that it suspended exports of the fruit. Three years on, banana cultivation is still the mainstay of the company's operation in Agualta Vale, St Mary; but cassava, sweet potato, and pineapple are gaining ground in terms of the acreage under cultivation.
THE JAMAICAN Government is to provide counter funding to match the €650,000 grant provided by the European Union (EU) to help in transforming the banana industry to adapt to the changes dictated by globalisation.
THE STUDENTS' Loan Bureau (SLB) could soon introduce reduced interest rates to tertiary students. Finance and the Public Service Minister Audley Shaw announced this week that the Government was taking a serious look at reducing the interest cost to students.
The start-up capital required for foreign investors seeking to engage in commercial activities in The Bahamas islands has been increased by 100 per cent as part of the government's effort to tighten immigration rules.On Monday, Prime Minister Hubert...
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says the region is facing the "double shock" of rising commodity prices and the growth in global liquidity.
Last week Alcoa, the world's second-largest aluminium producer and part-owner of the local JAMALCO plant, released strong first-quarter 2011 financial figures showing that its revenues jumped to US$6 billion, an impressive 22 per cent increase...
Gold and silver prices rose Wednesday as inves-tors continued to worry about inflation and how the United States and Europe will deal with their ongoing financial problems.Gold settled at US$1,498.90 an ounce, its seventh consecutive day of gains....
Strong earnings from technology companies in the US, including those from Intel Corp and Yahoo Inc, pushed US stocks higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 1.5 per cent.Oil prices settled above US$111 per barrel on the New York Mercantile...
A panel of academics and heads of private-sector organisations said Wed-nesday the Jamaican government must now shift to actual implementation of policies and move away from mere talk for the economy to grow."The platform is there for growth, but two...
I had the recent pleasure of addressing a group of 4-H clubbites in St Thomas on the occasion of the club's seventieth anniversary, and it gave me a wonderful opportunity to reminisce on the value of this organisation to the development of agriculture...
The stage appears set for confrontation between some emerging powers and the Big Seven who run the world over what the former sees as efforts to impose a "code of conduct" on their management of capital flows.
CD Alexander Realty Limited, one of Jamaica's oldest real-estate outfits and a member of the Musson Group, has joined forces with Century 21 Heave-Ho Properties in a move designed to broaden its offerings of brokerage, appraisal and insurance services...
Gordon 'Butch' Ste-wart, chairman of Sandals Resorts International, says he has had constructive discussions with the owner of Veranda hotel, a five-star fully inclusive 123-room resort located adjacent his Beaches Resort and Spa in the Turks and Caicos...
Attorney for the commission enquiring into the operations of FINSAC and those representing the Jamaican Redevelopment Foundation Inc, clashed verbally on Tuesday over the cross-examination of witnesses. The conflict was triggered by commission attorney...
The government has agreed to reforms that will give the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) oversight for the stability of the entire financial sector, a move that will transform the central bank into super regulator of the system.The broad parameters for the BOJ's...
At the end of the first quarter of 2011, the Caricom Consumer Sentiment Index, the CSI, stood at 68. The fact that the index value is less than 100 suggests that a majority of consumers are generally pessimistic about their personal financial situation....
For the week ended April 15, some 24,095,861 shares, valued at $3,862,747, crossed the floors of the six stock exchanges across Caricom, with 29 stocks advancing, 14 declining and 78 remaining unchanged.Jamaica Broilers was the volume leader...
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago says it will cooperate with the commission of enquiry into the failure of the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO).In a newspaper advertisement, the CBTT said that it has taken noted of media reports ...
A regional high court has approved the appointment of Richard Surage as judicial manager of the St Lucia operations of the Colonial Life Insurance Company International Life Insurance Limited (CIL).Surage was chosen by Eastern Caribbean governments...
Goldman Sachs took a hit to its first-quarter earnings after paying dividends to billionaire investor Warren Buffett's company, which invested US$5 billion in the bank at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.The investment bank's first-quarter...
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday reassured investors that the White House and Republican lawmakers will reach a deal to control the nation's finances, downplaying an unprecedented warning that the government risks losing its...
When Standard & Poor's said it might lower its top AAA rating on United States government debt, the stock market fell sharply. Traders were worried that if a downgrade happened, it would send interest rates higher....
An opposition politician in Venezuela denounced irregularities at a state-run bank and demanded an investigation on Monday after the bank was sanctioned and fined by the United States Federal Reserve.
Investors increasingly expect Greece will not pull itself out of its financial hole and will have to renege on some debt payments, despite spending a year on bailout loans making painful austerity reforms.
A shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway Inc has filed a lawsuit alleging that Warren Buffett and the company's board hurt investors by failing to act swiftly when they found out about stock trades that outgoing executive David Sokol made ahead...
