St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ new administration has formally suspended all exports of live cattle and other livestock to neighboring Grenada, Agriculture Minister Israel Bruce has announced, framing the move as a critical first step to shore up domestic food security, protect local livelihoods, and crack down on systemic praedial larceny across the country’s agricultural sector.
In an interview with NBC Radio, Bruce explained that the country is currently not positioned to sustain cross-border live animal shipments, noting that priority must be given to securing stable domestic supply chains, safeguarding downstream small businesses, and enforcing stricter controls against livestock theft that has plagued local farmers for years. The suspension directly responds to long-running complaints from butchers, small food entrepreneurs, and local producers, and aligns with the government’s broader agenda to build a modern, regulated abattoir, upgrade national meat quality standards, and eliminate widespread farm theft.
“I am squarely of the view that we are not in the best position at this moment to get involved in or to continue the practice of shipping live animals across to Grenada,” Bruce stated. “There is now a halt on that programme.”
The practice of exporting live cattle to Grenada was first launched by the previous Unity Labour Party administration, and continued even as local industry stakeholders repeatedly raised alarms over its impact on domestic beef availability, particularly during peak demand periods. Bruce, who took office as part of the newly elected New Democratic Party government in November, acknowledged that unregulated live exports have created cascading disruptions across St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ entire local meat supply chain.
To illustrate the harm of the prior policy, Bruce cited the experience of small burger vendors who sourced product from a popular butcher based in Gun Hill. That butcher relied on a consistent inflow of local cattle to serve his own customers, including clients on the island of Mustique. Once live exports reduced the number of cattle available for local slaughter, the butcher lost access to enough animals to fulfill his orders, forcing him to exit the Mustique market and leaving small dependent vendors without reliable income.
This case, Bruce argued, demonstrates how poorly managed live exports can undermine local enterprise and food security when domestic production levels are already limited. “This is not something that I believe that we could sustain at this point in time,” he added.
In place of unprocessed live exports, the ministry is advancing a new abattoir-centered development model that is designed to guarantee consistent, high-quality meat for local consumers, while creating a framework for future regulated exports of processed meat to regional and international markets. The planned abattoir will also support stronger traceability systems to combat livestock theft, and reinforce the viability of the local livestock economy and organized producer groups.
Bruce told listeners he has already held productive consultations with the national Butchers’ Association, and most recently met with the Cattle Farmers and Producers Association of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (CFPA), where the suspension of live shipments to Grenada was a central topic of discussion.
“An abattoir is not just a facility where we bring the animals for slaughter,” Bruce said. “It is a facility that will guarantee us standards of the meat that goes out into the marketplace for local consumption, and, if we verge into the regional and international market, it will be a facility that helps us to support our own production on the ground.”
He added that the regulated slaughter process required by the new abattoir will also severely disrupt illegal livestock theft networks: by centralizing legal slaughter and sales, it will become far harder for thieves to offload stolen animals to legitimate buyers. “It will threaten praedial larceny,” Bruce noted.
The minister confirmed that a formal proposal for the new abattoir will be submitted to Cabinet for review in the coming weeks, as the cornerstone of the government’s planned livestock sector restructuring.
The pause on live exports is just one component of a broader, multi-pronged government strategy to tackle persistent praedial larceny, a problem that Bruce said has steadily eroded farmer livelihoods across the country. He disclosed that ongoing inter-ministerial talks are underway between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of National Security to speed up full implementation of the existing Praedial Larceny Act, which he said has been poorly enforced for years.
The government is also currently waiting on input from a local private sector firm on specialized farm monitoring technology and equipment that can help identify and track thieves operating on agricultural lands. Additionally, a new national traceability law, which will first apply to livestock and later be expanded to crop production, is currently under review by the Attorney General’s office. The legislation will enable full tracking of animals through every stage of the supply chain, eliminating the grey market that allows stolen livestock to be sold illegally.
Bruce emphasized that the rising rate of farm theft across the country is rooted in weak enforcement of existing regulations, not a lack of policy. “One of the fundamental challenges that we have … is that the thievery that is happening on your farms is because there has been a slacking or a lacking of the enforcement of the praedial larceny act,” he said.
The minister reiterated his election campaign promise to crack down on agricultural crime, telling listeners: “I told the thieves during the election campaign that with a New Democratic Party government elected and myself being appointed Minister of Agriculture, I will make restless the praedial larcenists. The journey has begun.”
Once the new abattoir and national traceability system are fully implemented, Bruce said, the reforms will protect both law-abiding farmers and legitimate meat traders by closing off illegal markets for stolen animals: “the thief will have nobody to sell the stolen animals to.”