Investment door swings open for sauces, spices
Published:Monday | August 9, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Livern Barrett, Staff Reporter
Numerous investment opportunities are emerging in the local agricultural sector, according to industry experts who warn that critical challenges hurting the sector have to be tackled swiftly.
Chief executive officer of the Export Import (EXIM) Bank, Lisa Bell, told a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum that there are openings for the production of sauces and spices and value-added production in crops like coffee and cocoa.
Citing pimento as an example, Bell said the country could see major benefits if farmers could guarantee a regular supply, as well as experimenting with pimento oil.
"Jamaica has remained resilient despite the recession, and there are still opportunities in those areas (sauces and spices)," Bell said.
Referring to reports that forecast that 2010 may see a higher-than-usual yield in coffee, the EXIM Bank boss expressed hope that "somewhere in that, there is an opportunity for increased value-added production".
Bell also urged farmers to tap into the tourism sector.
"Everything that is needed in a hotel in Jamaica, in terms of food, can be produced here, and we must supply it," Bell said.
'Organic' a buzzword
Another area of opportunity, according to managing director of Johnson's Organic Fertiliser, Hugh Johnson, is in organic foods.
He said world demand for organic foods has shot up because of shifting consumer appetite for produce which is not artificially enhanced.
Johnson said the sector has recorded growths of up to 27 per cent in the last six years, and urged farmers to seek out emerging investment opportunities.
Despite this, managing director of Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, Senator Norman Grant, said farmers are still grappling with deplorable roads and poor irrigation systems.
Grant said he would like to see a more equitable distribution of the fuel tax to help maintain the rural road network.
"I am not happy in terms of the allocations that have been made so far. I am not even sure if any has been allocated to the rural communities," Grant told the same forum.
The farm sector is the only one to grow consistently in the economy over the last eight quarters, having done so even amid months of drought.