Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture

The Senepol breed of beef cattle were developed on the USVI island of St. Croix by Henry C. Nelthropp in the early 1900’s by crossing Red Poll cattle and N’Dama cattle. The Senepol breed combines the N’Dama characteristics of heat tolerance and insect resistance with the extreme gentleness, good meat, and high milk production of the Red Poll.

St. Croix is also home to the Cruzan Rum Distillery, makers of Cruzan Rum. The Cruzan Rum Distillery was founded in 1760, and for many years used locally grown sugar cane to produce a single “dark” style rum. The distillery now imports sugar cane molasses from other Caribbean islands, primarily from the Dominican Republic. In recent years Cruzan Rum, along with Bacardi from Puerto Rico and Gosling’s from Bermuda, has also contributed to the resurgence of “single barrel” super-premium rum. Examples of this are Cruzan Estate Diamond Rum (aged 5 years in American oak barrels) and Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum (aged 12 years in American oak barrels).

The Virgin Islands are home to a variety of tropical fruits. Coconuts are probably the first one that comes to mind for many of our visitors. Other common fruits are mango, papaya, banana figs, soursop, carambola, sea grapes, breadfruit, pomegranate, tamarind, guava and passion fruit.