Farmers in  Johns Hall, Kellits and Chapelton were excited to get into the export market with the iceberg type lettuce. The farmers are now able to meet local demands as well as share with regional neighbours.

Published Saturday March 22, 1969

Locally grown lettuce exported for first time

The first commercial shipment of locally grown lettuce to leave this country was shipped to Barbados yesterday by the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC).

The lettuce, which is of the iceberg type, was shipped in fifty 25 lb. crates and the AMC’s sales manager, Ishmael Robertson, was at the Palisadoes International Airport to see the cargo loaded onto the BWIA aircraft which took it to its destination.

Robertson regarded the lettuce cargo as “a significant breakthrough into the foreign market” as, up to last year, Jamaica imported much of its lettuce for the hotel and supermarket trade.  The country was now in a position, however, to supply all the local needs, as well as export, he explained.

Robertson said the ocrporation had lettuce in stock that amounted to about 10 times the quantity he shipped yesterday.  And there was much exportable lettuce in the fields, too.

Formerly, Jamaica had to import lettuce, as the type grown in the island could not meet all the local needs, in that, it could not be packed or stored.

With the assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and the AMC, however, local farmers started to grow an iceberg-type lettuce which was ideal for packaging and storing, and these farmers are now able to meet all the local demand.

This new type of lettuce is grown mostly in such areas as Johns Hall, Kellits and Chapelton in Clarendon.

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