Grenada Cocoa Association Cooperative Agreement Signing

Remarks by
Ambassador Larry L. Palmer
Diamond Estates, Grenada
June 30, 2012

The U.S. Embassies to Grenada and Barbados and Eastern Caribbean are pleased to support youth development work in all six island nations in the Eastern Caribbean.  The Embassy’s youth development programs come against a background of difficult economic times, rising youth unemployment, and growing involvement of youth in crime and violence.  But it also comes at a time when governments and world markets have never been more open to trade, when new technologies can link buyers and sellers in far-flung corners of the world, and youth in small islands like Grenada are as linked in as their cousins in Brooklyn and London.  It is a world of great opportunity, and a time to look at traditional commodities with new (and younger) eyes.

Today we celebrate the recent signing of a Cooperative Agreement between USAID and the Grenada Cocoa Association in the amount of $173,968.  The agreement supports a unique partnership between the Grenada Cocoa Association and the private firm of L. A. Burdick Grenada operating under the name of Diamond Cocoa Estates .  The resources will be used by Grenada Cocoa Association to procure valuable equipment to make the plant operational.  In turn, Diamond Cocoa Estates will ensure the employment and training of youth in its operations.  Specific outcomes include the following:

• 11 graduates of the CYEP will be employed by Diamond Cocoa Estates as part of an overall complement of 20 regular workers
• Long term source for youth employment and empowerment at Diamond Cocoa Estates as business grows
•  Diamond Cocoa Estates will produce block chocolate and full range of cocoa-related products
• The Diamond Cocoa Estates plant will be made available as a contract processor for other cocoa growing companies, serving as a hub for farmers both in Grenada and the Caribbean region.

Under Phase II of the CYEP, the sub-awardees, the Grenada Industrial Development Cooperation (GIDC) and New Life Opportunities (NEWLO) will train 300 youth over the next year in a variety of skills including: entrepreneurship, commercial food preparation, restaurant services, bar services, early childhood development, construction, plumbing, electrical installation, furniture making, geriatric care, and CISCO IT Essential/ComTIA fundamentals.  Resources for this ambitious arrangement are programmed through the United States Agency for International Development and include funding under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative which, among other things, seeks to support crime prevention measures in the region.

We believe in “Positive Youth Development” models that provide youth with positive messaging, and afford them opportunities to meaningfully contribute to their homes, schools, and communities.   We believe that the Diamond project can provide this sort of opportunity.  I am confident that - to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson-  this facility may start operations on a small scale, but, like a diamond, it will prove to be of great worth.