While a great deal of Barbados’ economy is made up of the formal sector, there is also the informal sector which makes a significant contribution to its survival.
The informal sector, or underground economy, is made up of many workers doing various jobs. However, this week we take a look at a few ackee vendors.
Many of these vendors will not register their businesses or pay taxes. They are commonly referred to as “hustlers” and can be seen at road junctions, roundabouts or alongside a street plying their trade.
They would readily agree that they too, like registered businesses, are contributing to the economy and its overall growth.
Moreover, with the ongoing recession, several people have been laid off or let go and have been forced to find other means of income for their survival and that of their families.
Dave Delplesh, 33, originally worked in the fish market, but told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that “things got very slow”.
“So I decided to come and hustle a little thing for myself, because I don’t really like to beg people. I like to be independent. This going roughly two months now since I have been doing this.”
Located at the Garfield Sobers Roundabout, Delplesh plies his trade in the blistering heat, asking $2 per bunch for his ackees. He said he made enough to support his family. He would be at his location from as early as 9 a.m. until about five or six o’clock in the evening.
Delplesh has one son who he admitted was his responsibility.
“Yes, it is profitable, because right now, I got money. I came out here and didn’t have any. The money coming, man. You see?” he said, pulling a wad of bills from one of his pants’ pockets.
This Pine, St Michael resident is also a construction worker, but construction had stopped on the site he was working on for about two years.
“Next year, for sure, I will be back into construction. I got laid off – I got a green paper and thing, but the project starting back next year and I will be going back,” he said with enthusiasm.
This vendor said he did not steal the fruit and he did not buy it to sell. However, he would pick the fruit from a tree in the Flagstaff, St Michael area himself.
“The tree is a free tree. It just grows there and it happens to be a sweet tree and not everyone is familiar with [it]. Who knows about it, will go on it and who don’t know it sweet, will just walk past it,” he said.
Delplesh said hustling in the midday heat was not a bother to him since “I looking for money, so when you looking for money, you can’t really mind the sun”.
He also noted that positioning to get the most sales possible was important and that was why setting up at a roundabout was ideal because of the constant flow of traffic.
In the Monday, January 17, 2011 BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY, Central Bank of Barbados Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell said every country has an informal economy and it was “one of the things that facilitates the smooth running of the economy”.
“[It] allows us to adjust in difficult circumstances like these because if we didn’t have the informal economy, a lot of people who have lost jobs or are on short work weeks wouldn’t be able to eat,” he said.
Asked whether this informal economy deprived Government of tax revenue, he said “small people should escape the tax net . . . there’s a minimum for VAT anyway. People who are below that minimum are not eligible to pay VAT in any case”.
The Governor noted that the number of people gravitating towards this sector would increase as a result of increased unemployment “because people have to live”.
Mark Felicien, 42, is also a fruit vendor. He has been plying his trade in The City for the past 24 years. He only sells seasonal fruits.
He too said he did not buy his fruit to resell them and neither did he steal them. He admitted that he would go “through the bushes early ’pon a morning and try to get the best of the fruits”.
He operates his business from a stall as early as 8 a.m. until about six o’clock in the evening “only three days” a week. He too, said it was a profitable job.
“As soon as one crop done, one start. I may get a little week or two at home but as fast as one season done, another one start,” he said.
Felicien allowed Ramon “Lenni” Carter to operate from his stall that day. Carter said usually, he would go to different vantage points to get his items sold. He originally worked in construction and landscaping.
“Whatever fruit is in [season], and once I am not working, I does hustle. Work [is] slow right now. I am not working right now, so I am back to hustling. I do construction, a little cleaning; it depends what come at the point in time but once no work is coming in, I am back to selling fruits,” explained Carter, as he parcelled some of the ackees into a small plastic bag.
“It is profitable,” he added.
Carter said he helps to support his little brother, his girlfriend and nephew.
Asked if he would steal the fruit to resell, the Rock Hall, St Thomas resident responded: “These ackees come from a man’s property. I went and asked the man a question and he told me there are some fellows who would carry away the ackees and he didn’t like that. He told me once I wanted them I just come and talk to him and the next time I told him I would pay him for them and he said ‘no’, because I asked. So I have been getting my ackees from him since.”
Carter, 21, said he has been on and off the fruit vending from the time he was a little boy. He admitted that even though he would sometimes be working in construction or other jobs, he would still do a little hustling on the side.
In its recent Global Employment Trends For Youth 2012 report (www.ilo.org/getyouth), the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in terms of global numbers, there will be nearly 75 million unemployed youths aged 15 to 24 in 2012, an increase of nearly four million since 2007.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the youth unemployment rate rose sharply during the economic crisis, from 13.7 per cent in 2008 to 15.6 in 2009. It decreased to 14.3 per cent in 2011, but no further improvement is expected in the medium term.
Barbados’ unemployment rate is currently hovering around the ten per cent mark
