Dear Kist-members, The latest in the groundnut trading season is that GOTG has announced on the 6th Jan 2000 that the the season was now to begin in earnest after so many false starts that were souce of lot of disappointment for so many Gambian farmers and their depenbdents. Inspite of widespread rumours taking the rounds days before the announcement, the official price of D2700 perton was not reduced as many had feared and according to widespread rumours. Three private dealers, namely the Farato Farms, New Dimensions (NDL) and the UTP-Tulor were said to be ready for buying nuts in cash allover the country. This of of course was welcome news for hundreds of thousands of groundnut cultivators who had been living in dspair all thoughout the holy month of Ramadan. Many of these had given up all hopes of turning many a bumper harvest to much needed cash , inspite of all prior promises. An estimated 12 500 tons of nut had been screened, weighed and deposited to scores of depots around the country without any clewar or firm indications of payments. This inspite of the the so-called FOA, or Framework of Agreement, prepared by the ASPA, a thorny non-governmental forum of so-called stakeholders that is backed by EU and local Western representatives but that is vhemently opposed by GOTG. Tens of thousands of other farmers had taken their nuts across the border to Senegal to be paid prices much lower than both the Senegalese and the Gambian officially announced prices. The rest either resorted to the cut-throating mule-ridden Njogan buyers or, with the help of primitive oil expellants, screwed the nuts into cooking oil for the domestic market. All these, needless to say, became major diincentives for participants in the groundnut sector. Nevertheless, the economic situation of many Gambian producers and other citizens still remain precarious and the masses of the country's people are still apprehensive. They have every reason to be so because the measures adopted by GOTG is like using petrol to put out a house on fire. Government has abruptly and without going through the due process, plundered funds from the Department of Social Security, GAMTEL and Gambia Ports Authority to raise the D30 million now used to pre-finance purchasing by the three private dealers. Pro-government sources are really mad due to the high-handed interfarence by EU and representatives of other international financiers. They hacve forced GOTG,the only financially liquid domestic åplayer, to stand off from interference with the trade. Both Farato Farms and NDL, purely Gambian private companies, are penniless, totally dependent on pre-financing by potential external buyers. UTP-Tulor, a Swiss-based company of dubious reputation that was the cause of a major part of the chaos of thisa season, is operating with a volume much less than the impression it had given to GOTG negotiators, is the third so far accredited company. Catrl Agency, another local buyer, has been left out for reasons yet to be known. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the whole situation is that Goverenment has only been able to mobilize about D30 million which can buy only about 11 000 tons with a good portion expected to be left unbought in the hands of GOTG. Who will pay for the expected losses? The nbeneficiaries of the Social Security Fund, Tax Payers, who? What abot the remaing 60 000 tons, who will buy them? Meanwhile as the turbulence of the groundnut season rocks, cabinet was again reshuffled. Mr. Ablie Sallah who last week replaced the Mr. Dumbuya as SOS-Agriculture, has heimself been replaced by one Hassan Sallah. The former has taken the portfolio of Health from the over-worked Vice President. Papa Njie ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------