National coalition of farmers snubbed?

The contract between Chinese-based Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Company (LPHT) and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda was officially released to the media last Thursday. However, the coordinator of the National Coalition of Farmers (NCF), Fitzmorgan Greenaway, feels that the association is being disregarded by the government as, to date, the umbrella body has not received a copy of the document.
Furthermore, neither has any NCF representative been told that the contract (which the farmers had requested of Minister of Agriculture, Dean Jonas during a meeting early in May) had been released, he added.
Greenaway is of the opinion that the farmers, being direct stakeholders — and having been assured by the minister that a copy of the contract would be forthcoming — that they would have been one of the first groups to receive the document.
However, “that courtesy was not extended,” he told OBSERVER media yesterday. 
“I heard of [the contract] being released, by someone who saw it on the media. It wasn’t given to us … we were hoping that we
would have that cordial relationship, where some measure of respect between parties negotiating would have prevailed,” Greenaway said.
When asked if he believes that the NCF will still receive an official copy, Greenaway said: “As I speak now, I don’t know. I want to be honest, upfront and forthright, because we have been promised before and we have been promised again.”
He added: “We have been promised three times, with three different timelines. Now, it’s in the public domain, by electronic means, and we have not been given a copy.”
The NCF coordinator disclosed that a meeting with the interim executive of the NCF was due to be held yesterday evening, and that another meeting, this time with the general farming community, was scheduled to be held today.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)