KINGSTON, Jamaica— Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is informing that farmers who have been affected by the closure of hotels due to COVID-19 will receive help from the Tourism Linkages Network to offload their produce.

Bartlett made the disclosure recently during a digital press briefing.

 He noted the Network will use technology to support small farmers and help them connect to their supplies to market.

 “Now that the hotels are closed, we are working with them to enable connectivity to restaurants, to supermarkets and to also provide opportunities for community marketing arrangements,” he said.

The minister also said that the Network has been working with the farm community to enable supplies to be made available in tourism communities. 

“Tourism can’t respond to everything, but I believe we have a responsibility to deal with the communities that are immediately around the hotels. They have problems and in trying to help all around, the Network is working with the farmers to provide supplies access for people who are having to respond to the quarantining arrangements, the (stay in place) policy,” he noted.

According to the minister, head of the Network, Carolyn McDonald Riley, has been working with the ministry to implement other initiatives to enable the supplies that are now in the field to be taken off the farmers.

Bartlett said the primary goal of the Tourism Linkages Network is to ensure that Jamaica’s tourism sector becomes better integrated with other productive sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing.