Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association Inc. (SLHTA) - Virtual Agricultural Clearing House

In 2016, the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association strived to create an effective platform that would connect agricultural producers directly to a marketplace within the hospitality sector. Therefore, they launched the Virtual Agricultural Clearing House Programme via the creation of two WhatsApp groups namely agricultural producers and chefs.

After being launched, the two groups of over 100 producers and 60 chefs quickly grew, and now over 300 messages are exchanged daily. Since the launch of the programme, the delivery and receipt of local produce has increased, food waste has been reduced by approximately 15%, there is a wider variety of locally available products and sales for farmers have increased significantly.