COCONUT INDUSTRY REVIVAL.

From being on verge of closure as a result of not being able to buy copra, the coconut industry here has moved within a year, to making a payment of EC$400,000 (US$148,000) to 3,000 farmers in August, reports CANA (September 12, 1998): . Coconut growers have transformed a company that had shrunk to a few clerks and security guards to one which employs an average of 70 people and up to 100 in the peak period. The growers have also purchased their own EC$1 million bottling machine and no longer have to depend on St. Vincent for processed raw coconut oil; . Two years ago the coconut industry, once the island's second agricultural income earner, was all but dead, with its parent company, Copra Manufacturers, going into receivership, after production of oil fell to an all-time low and debt earnings rose to unmanageable proportions. The receivers, Price Waterhouse, even sold the company's bottle making machine; . But one year after the September 1, 1997 takeover of the crippled Copra Manufacturers by the Coconut Growers Association (CGA) the industry seems poised to regain its place in the islands vital agriculture sector. Having purchased the company for EC$4 million (US$1.48 million) with the help of the St. Lucia Development Bank and the National Commercial Bank, the CGA's first move was to put an austerity program in place; . Production is now about 8,500 cases per week, close to the 9-10,000 peak produced before the decline of the industry. The company has even branched off into producing spice oils, a product which it had never produced before. Government's decision to lift the price ceiling for oil and let market forces prevail has also helped.