UPDATE: Food Crisis? It's Napa Land here all the way.

UPDATE: I've noticed many visitors to this blog still read this post, although it's from 2008. Do we still have a food crisis here in Seychelles?


I don't believe we have. Oh, of course our supermarkets are not as full as those in Europe, but we're doing pretty ok. We even have a mini local supermarket chain called Kanu's that is very well stocked. They import a brand called Emborg, which I strongly suspect is EU overproduction for export (but, hey, it's still good stuff).

Prices are higher than ever, though...

Original post:


Many might say we've long had a food crisis in Seychelles. Called Napa Land (the land of nothing, after the usual reply of shopkeepers to enquiries of the availability of goods), the islands have long been lacking basic foodstuffs and commodities.

In some ways, things have improved. We now have Docklands Supermarket, which imports goodies like French cheese, chorizo and even, occasionally, Toblerone. I dream that, one day, they might even have Lindt or Caillier chocolate.

Meanwhile, to satisfy my cravings for chocolate, I buy South African Cadbury's chocolate at Supersave. Supersave is a total misnomer; far from saving any money, I walk out of there clutching my rotisserie chicken and loaf of brown bread, reeling with shock. As for the produce: does anybody really buy those overpriced vegetables that look frighteningly genetically modified?

What has become worse now is not so much the availability of food (which has been a problem since as far back as I can remember), but the prices. Yes, it's bad all over the world, but here in the Seychelles, the Rupee has been devalued as well. I don't know how a waitress earning the (new) minimum wage of Rs 2500 and bringing up two kids on her own as well survives. Hell, I don't know how I am surviving...

The government now says it will focus more on developing agriculture in the country. It's high time; Seychelles should be producing enough vegetables to feed the population instead of having to import them.

As an anarchist (ok, in these time maybe Libertarian) , I think Seychellois shouldn't wait around for the government to do something, but should get off our butts and do something ourselves. There doesn't seem to be a point to waiting for higher ups to solve our problems; we would be waiting until we're blue in the face. I wish somebody would take up on this business idea for homegrown vegetables I came across today. A company in San Francisco will install an organic vegetable garden in a customer's back yard. Customers choose whether to produce just enough for their own family or whether to become owner-members producing enough for the company to sell as well. Either way, once the garden's in, the company will maintain it using organic and permaculture techniques.

It's something that would work here, as most people have their own gardens. And organic sounds good to me; produce here is not just fertilised, but heavily over-fertilised.

I can't do it; I have black thumbs. Anyone?