JWN treatment plant more about dunder control than fertiliser, rum maker says

Rum maker J, Wray & Nephew Limited, JWN, expects its planned dunder treatment plant at New Yarmouth, Clarendon, to prevent up to 200,000 cubic metres of waste a year from entering the environment.

The plant will produce a by-product that can be used to make fertiliser and animal feed. But it’s the conversation of dunder waste that JWN cited as the plant’s most significant purpose in an interview this week.

The 200,000 cubic metres of waste that would prospectively be prevented from entering the environment is enough, the Financial Gleaner estimates, to fill 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The project would serve to improve the Campari-owned company’s ESG, or economic, social and governance metrics, it said.

Dunder is a dark, liquid waste left after distilling rum.

Once operational, the plant will produce 60 cubic metres of a syrupy substance per day that can be utilised as fertiliser or animal feed. It will also produce water as a by-product that’s safe enough to return to the environment.

The Financial Gleaner reported last week that JWN would add competition to the fertiliser supply market in which Newport-Fersan is currently the sole manufacturer. But the spirits company clarified in an interview this week that it is still at very preliminary stages of working out the terms of supplying fertiliser to third parties.

It’s still negotiating with interested parties, Senior Supply Chain Director Laetitia Chevillard said on Monday.

Currently, JWN uses dunder to fertigate its cane fields, meaning the product is used both to irrigate and fertilise cane crops.

The company, which operates the Appleton and New Yarmouth estates, has been accused in the past of effluent breaches.

In 2015, the National Environment and Planning Agency, NEPA, served JWN with a warning over the discharge of “high-strength trade effluent” or dunder, in the area of North Elim River in St Elizabeth.

JWN was later sued for US$23 million in December 2015 by Algix fish farm, which claimed that effluent from Appleton Estate had adversely impacted its business, a case that generated headlines.

In August 2019, JWN’s parent company Campari disclosed that a settlement of US$1.2 million (€1.1 million) had been reached with Algix Jamaica. Insurance covered the bulk of the payout.

The exposure generated by such cases is something the rum maker wants to avoid in the future.

“We have to find a way to use the dunder,” said Chevillard. “The new plant will allow us to stop the fertigation.”

Additionally, fertigation only utilises a small portion of the dunder generated, which means JWN has to find other means of disposing of the large pool of waste.

The company announced plans to build the US$25-million dunder plant last year. Its construction is expected to be completed by 2023 or early 2024. JWN noted that the plant would be able to process around 200,000 cubic metres of dunder, equating to 60 cubic metres of syrupy product per day.

“This is the way to treat dunder in a way that won’t contaminate the environment,” Chevillard said.

The company has previously spent US$7 million on a wastewater plant at the Appleton factory in St Elizabeth, and $700 million on a wastewater treatment system at its Spanish Town Road complex in Kingston.

business@gleanerjm.com