BARBADOS HAS much to learn from China in terms of growing food and tax levies.
Managing director of Roberts Manufacturing David Foster was a part of a Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) contingent which took a recent trip to China to explore better business opportunities between the two nations.
He told the DAILY NATION during a break in a Doing Business With China briefing in Bagnall’s Point Gallery, Pelican Craft Centre, St Michael, last Friday, what he saw there surprised him.
“China has the same land mass as the United States but only 13 per cent of it is arable and they have 1.34 billion people. One thing you see is, everywhere you go, people growing food – on the tops of high-rise buildings you see people growing tomatoes and pawpaws. All you can see at the tops of buildings are people with gardens growing food,” he said.
Even so, Foster said China still had to import five million metric tonnes of corn and this figure was slated to rise within a decade to 16 million tonnes. However, he said the country had enough foreign reserves to pay for it.
Another thing which Foster said struck him was China’s tax structure. He said people there were not taxed for earning more money and this was something Barbados should consider.
“People there who work overtime are not moved into a higher tax bracket. We have to understand that if we want to improve productivity, we need a more flat tax structure.”
He added that one of his main reasons for travelling to China was to seek a business partner there to make margarine in the country.
“They seem to import a lot of butter from New Zealand so we were looking for a partner to do margarine and we are still investigating that. We would provide the technology with a partner to get into unrefrigerated and refrigerated margarines,” he said.
Foster said it was a matter of starting small as China was too large to attempt to market to it in its entirety.
“We don’t have to focus on the entirety, focus on niche markets because you don’t need to start in those huge markets; start small and grow. It was a fascinating trip,” he said.
Chief executive officer of the BIDC Dr Leroy McClean said the trip was fully funded by the Chinese government. He said they gathered considerable information and the purpose of the briefing was to disseminate it.
“We do $50 million in exports to China but we think there is an opportunity to do much more, but you can only do this if you know the market there,” he said.
The briefing also included remarks from Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Maxine McClean; Minister of International Business Donville Inniss and Chinese Ambassador to Barbados Wang Ke. (CA)
