Malvinas islanders dig deep in self-sufficiency drive

STANLEY, — Competition was fierce at the Malvinas horticultural show this year as islanders turned flowerbeds over to cabbages and chicken coops to beat food shortages and high prices that many blame on Argentina.

Thirty years after Argentina and Britain went to war over the remote South Atlantic archipelago, many of the 3,000 islanders say Argentine shipping controls are disrupting food imports and making some fresh goods a luxury in the British-ruled territory.

Bananas, which disappeared from stores for months, recently reappeared with a price tag of about US$1.59 apiece.

In the island capital of Stanley, the biggest hotel only managed to get enough eggs when the manager put an urgent appeal on a community Facebook page, attracting offers of help from residents for miles around.

“A couple of months ago it was probably the worst I’ve experienced in ten years,” said Carl Stroud, general manager of the Malvina House Hotel, lamenting that soaring fruit prices had forced austerity measures at the breakfast buffet.

“We just can’t put fresh fruit out ... Unless we bump up our room rates to compensate, it would be hard,” he said.

A small portion of watermelon — imported from Chile — costs up to US$4.77 while iceberg lettuce sells for as much as US$6.36 due to steep air freight costs on a once-weekly commercial flight.

A hydroponic nursery produces plentiful supplies of Mediterranean-style vegetables and even strawberries in vast greenhouses outside Stanley, but production falls when winter temperatures dip.

The eye-watering prices and patchy supplies are persuading more and more residents to grow their own vegetables, reviving a tradition of self-sufficiency in the isolated islands.

CABBAGES, TURNIPS AND CARROTS

Among the colourful tin roofs and white-washed houses of Stanley, rows of cabbages, carrots and turnips provide a hardy, cut-price alternative to the supermarkets’ imports. Tomatoes ripen slowly on their vines on porches and in greenhouses.

“Vegetables are not always available and when they are they’re not always good quality and can be expensive,” said Derek Howatt, 61, who keeps hens in his back garden and grows cauliflowers in the front.

“I spend a fortune on fruit. It would be lovely to grow bananas and oranges instead of carrots and turnips, but that’s not possible,” said Howatt, adding that tough competition at this year’s garden show had stripped him of his perennial crown.

Roger Spink, head of the chamber of commerce, said Argentine shipping controls aimed at pressuring Britain to hold sovereignty talks had only served to harm islanders’ interests.

“People feel that Argentina has it in for the Falklands ... therefore most of the people in the Falklands don’t have much time for Argentina, so it’s counterproductive,” he said.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has ratcheted up pressure on Britain to negotiate the sovereignty of the islands, which Argentina has claimed since 1833.

Under an Argentine decree issued in 2010 to protest ongoing oil exploration by British companies, ships travelling to and from the islands through Argentine waters must get permission from Buenos Aires.

Islanders say a long history of fending for themselves will help them beat such measures, which they see as a de facto blockade on a thriving economy boosted by fishing, tourism and offshore oil exploration.

“People are very resilient here and we’ll find other ways of doing things,” Spink said.

An import substitution programme aimed at shoring up food supplies was launched last year by the Falkland Islands Development Corporation, reflecting official concern. So far, it is considering projects such as a commercial egg farm.

“It’s not a ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign,” said the corporation’s general manager, Marc Boucher, referring to Britain’s World War II vegetable gardening campaign. “It’s more a natural evolution of people wanting fresh products as and when they want them.”

For some newcomers to the far-flung Malvinas, the sporadic green grocery supplies take a bit of getting used to.

On a visit to a canteen at the nearby military base, Stanley resident Hilary Walters spotted Prince William, second-in-line to the British throne during a recent military posting there. She also saw bananas for the first time in months.

“‘Forget royalty, they’ve got bananas’ I said ... it makes you realize how much you take things for granted in the UK,” she said.