Sea Cotton From The Island Of Nevis
Charlestown, Nevis
May 15, 2008
The final push towards the first export of Sea Island Cotton from Nevis to Japan commenced on May 13, 2008, when the New River Ginnery cranked into motion after a four-year suspension, to gin 22,000 pounds of raw cotton.
The Department of Agriculture had taken a decision in 2007, to reintroduce the cotton crop following growing interests and high prices offered by Japanese importers.
Small Farm Equipment Pool Manager Mr. John Parris who had been involved in cotton ginning operations since 1979 said in an interview during the Department’s Eye on Agriculture NTV Channel 8 programme, that it took some doing to get the equipment ready for processing the first crop, since they had not been in operation for some time.
“First we had to order a set of parts from the United Kingdom because the machines are up to 70 years old and we had to go directly to a parts company. So we acquired the necessary parts and also the bailing material because once you process the cotton, you have to do bailing for the finished product and over the last two three weeks, I worked on reinstalling the machines.
“The Small Farm Equipment workers we came over and refurbished all the machines because they were out of service for over four years. We have three out of four running. The reason why the fourth is not working is because we have to make up a conveyer to feed into the knives so maybe over the next year or so we will get that going as well,” he explained.