Site of the now flattened former Tomato Packing facility in Rock Sound which was owned by UBP politician, George Baker.
It was in February 1973 when the Tribune, a national daily, published an article documenting the demise of one of the country’s largest tomato canning factories, “Bahamas Best Products Ltd” located in Rock Sound Eleuthera. The once thriving company owned, by former Eleuthera representative in a colonial Bahamas, Mr. George Baker, reportedly began to suffer tremendous losses and closed, when the local market turned to imported brands over the locally grown, canned and exported product.
This week, bulldozers ploughed through the dilapidated frame of the packing house, which eerily still contained crates, bottles, caps, boxes and paperwork of that time when business thrived. The old factory close by has also been recently levelled.
UBP Political Paraphernalia in the rubble of the packing house, gives a glimpse of the political landscape in The Bahamas, as the first black Government (PLP) charted the course to Independence.
Tossed in the rubble of the packing house were posters of the owner of the company, former Member of Parliament for South Eleuthera, George Baker, as a candidate for the United Bahamian Party (UBP), a party that too lost its life as political power transitioned to the majority in the Bahamas.
“Stay Free vote UBP”, “Don’t be stupid, Vote George Baker, if you don’t want to cry when the well runs dry”, and Political News clippings, were there in the rubble with the broken bottles, caps and boxes, symbolic of their linked fate.
