But while the performance of manufacturing has fluctuated in the last few years, and its decline has been more pronounced between 1996 and 1998, bananas, the island's main cash crop, has fared even worse, significantly reducing the importance of agriculture as an outstanding pillar of support for the economy. Restructuring of the banana industry to cope with the ongoing liberalization of the once protected European market has been given as the main reason for the dramatic decline in bananas. An increasingly competitive market will continue to affect banana earnings, prompting the government to look elsewhere to supplement lost income. What is needed is not an industry to replace agriculture, but an industry to complement agriculture. That is why we are focusing on tourism and financial services, but not forgetting manufacturing.
Manufacturing also has to face the realities of the new business era.
This poses a direct threat to infant industries, which need some protection from outside competition to grow and strengthen. We will have to operate in an open market and environment. It's a bitter pill to swallow. But although manufacturers concede that government has to meet its commitments to free trade agreements, they are also aware that certain regional and international agreements provide some studied leeway for protecting the vulnerability of weaker economies from severe disadvantages posed by open competition. Chairman of St Lucia Distillers Ltd and SMA Vice President responsible for large manufacturers, Laurie Barnard, wants the St Lucia Government to take a page from its Barbadian counterpart in that regard.