The Falkland Islands Government has announced the appointment of Dr Andrea Clausen as the new Director of Natural Resources. Andrea is due to take up her post in October 2019 and will be working with John Barton to ensure that there is a unified approach to the handover of duties across the agriculture, fisheries and veterinary departments. This appointment comes following a comprehensive search and selection process.
In a joint initiative between the Falkland Islands government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, an agricultural exchange visit to Uruguay is being arranged for September 2019.
The value of the Falkland Islands wool clip has increased by around 11% over the past six years, or £1 million at today’s wool prices announced MLA Teslyn Barkman at the most recent meeting of Legislative Assembly.
Falkland Islands farmers produced 1.7 million kilos of wool last year and also provided 44,000 sheep to the abattoir, according to the 2015/16 Farming Statistics recently compiled by the Department of Agriculture. This work was carried out by just 281 people recorded as living on the farms; 151 on the East, 105 on the West and just 25 scattered around the 11 farms on outer islands.
The Falkland Islands economy has witnessed impressive, although volatile, growth in recent years with unemployment rates low enough to be the envy of most countries in the world and the government is free of debt, according to the latest State of the Economy released by the Falklands Policy Unit.
It is the generation of thirty-something who as children were the first to benefit from well-funded primary and secondary education following the Islands’ economic turn-around in the late 1980’s. They were the first generation of locally educated children who could graduate in careers of their choice.