JP bammy doing well
Published:Saturday | April 23, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
AGUALTA VALE, St Mary:
ROLF SIMMONDS, commercial director of operations at JP Tropical Foods, said he is keen on highlighting the importance of the company's 320 employees in ensuring consistently good-quality products.
"We are always proud, talking to our people in our factory about this innovation, because they see themselves as partners in this innovation process. When they are peeling the bananas or cassava or potatoes, or whatever it is, they see themselves as partners in that innovation process. It's not just about exporting bananas or selling green bananas on the side of the road," Simmonds said.
Meanwhile, the diversification, which has been a hallmark of the company's resurgence, is a matter of pride for Simmonds. Some 30 farmers occupying an estimated 300 acres of the property are engaged in the cultivation of sweet corn, pumpkin, papaya, and sweet pepper, as well as providing the supply base for the sweet potato and cassava operation under Project CARE.
The new pineapple variety, 'JP Tropical', the company put on the market recently, has been well received for its consistently sweet flavour and long shelf life. "We did trial runs, which we have just completed for the first quarter of this year, and they were satisfactory, so now we are rolling out the production of that, and this will be shown at the expo," Simmonds shared.
"We did a lot of experimentation around cassava in the first place and have now settled on some varieties that we think have all the right properties, and now we are rolling them out so they give very good yields - some of the best yields around," he related. "So we are able to consistently deliver, unlike other bammy producers in Jamaica. We can consistently offer cheaper sweet cassava in 100 per cent of the bammies that we produce, and we've selected the right varieties to give the right shelf properties and ... we are now rolling it out for all the bammies."
Price-competitive advantage
This extensive research has also given the company a price-competitive advantage, and Simmonds was quick to point out that everything it does is properly grounded in a demand framework.
"Whether it's the pineapple or bammies, ultimately, we know that it's the consumer that has to eat it. So certainly, it has to be within a certain price framework, but the first priority is matching or improving the quality delivered to that consumer because that consumer must want that product, not just have it available. So yes, we are price competitive, in some cases, aggressively so, and we pride ourselves on that," said Simmonds.
For Jeffrey Hall, CEO of Jamaica Producers, and Simmonds, the company's resilience in anticipating demand and trends has been a matter of organisation predicated on foresight and excellent business acumen.
Said Hall: "This is a business that is engaged in formal agriculture and we are the first agricultural company of any kind in Jamaica to be ISO 2000-certified, and so the ethos behind this business is one of being highly organised and being vertically integrated. They are people who make bammy, but don't grow cassava, people who grow cassava, but don't make bammy. The fact that we do both has to be turned from a weakness to a strength and has to be made a strength. Now it allows us to drive efficiency but also drive a strength in quality and consistency.
"In the last four years, we have won the national quality awards for manufacturing three times - more times than any other company in the history of Jamaica consistently ..."
Meanwhile, JP Tropical Foods is the single major sponsor, with a $500,000.00 commitment to the St Mary Agri-Expo, which takes place on Easter Monday. Simmonds said it is part of the company's ongoing commitment to the development of the parish.
"I think it is important for us to be at this expo because it has been so significant to commodity production, but it means also that we are trying to be partners in the promotion of more than just commodity production or primary production. I think it is something that the parish needs," Simmonds said.