Rosie McMaster of Susie’s Hot Sauce says high quality goods are being produced by OECS manufacturers and further efforts must be made to facilitate the shipping of these goods throughout the region: “We have to become advanced if we are to compete with those giants in the bigger outside world. With CSME I think there must be machinery for us to expand and one of the main factors is the movement of our goods”.

McMaster is suggesting an inter-island boat-line such as the Federal Palm and the Federal Maple Boats of yesteryear for trading products among OECS Member Countries. She says a return to a boat-line will be significantly useful for transporting competitive OECS products in light of the Caricom Single Market and Economy CSME:

“The movement of people is there but we need a boat-line to take our goods between the islands. Transportation is very important and reflecting on the days of the Federal Palm and Maple where we had the boat-lines between Jamaica in the North and Guyana in the South unless we have something like that the free movement of goods will be stagnated and it will be a very bad blow to CSME’s successful execution, especially for us in the small islands. We need a boat service to move our goods. It could also be a passenger thing like the Federal Palm and Maple. This will help to get our goods moving safely and economically between the islands.” - McMaster

The Federal Palm and the Federal Maple boats were gifts of the Canadian government in support of the West Indies Federation. A proposed regional ferry service is being considered by CARICOM governments. McMaster’s company was part of a recent OECS World Class Manufacturing seminar, by the OECS Export Development Unit OECSEDU. Susie’s Hot sauce based in Antigua-Barbuda has been associated with the OECS EDU since 1994.