EU provides millions in aid to St. Lucia

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – The European Union is providing EC$37 million (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) over a five year period to St. Lucia under the Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) to finance the government’s Agricultural Transformation Programme (ATP).
“Today marks another milestone on our journey towards the restructuring of our agricultural sector. This we hope to achieve through specific interventions in a bid to make it more sustainable and competitive for the future,” said Prime Minister and Minister and Finance, Dr. Kenny Anthony.
He said the Euro 10.3 million is St. Lucia’s share of the Euro 190 million provided by the European Commission to cushion the losses being experienced by African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries as a result of the EU’s preferential regime for bananas.