Grace Foods: A source of jobs and investment

While Grace Foods has been serving up high-quality, delicious and nutritious products in Jamaica for years, they have also been providing much-needed jobs and opportunities. Their investment in vegetable and pepper farming since the start of the year is just under $21 million.

Grace Agro Processors Division, located in Hounslow, St Elizabeth, is one of five GraceKennedy factories islandwide. The factory was opened in 2011 and leased to GraceKennedy for 10 years, under a collaborative agreement between the company and the Improving Jamaica's Agricultural Productivity Project (IJAP) within the agriculture ministry.

The IJAP is funded by a grant of Ca$4.9 million from the Canadian International Development Agency. Another C$1.5 million in counterpart support came from the Jamaican Government and C$134,956 from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. Under the agreement, GraceKennedy spent $49 million to renovate and equip the shell of what was then an abandoned building, with appropriate storage and packaging machinery.

Grace Agro-Processors vegetable pack house produces shredded callaloo, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, sliced sweet pepper mix, chopped stir fry mix, chopped romaine lettuce and chopped iceberg lettuce for supermarkets and food service customers.

boost to agriculture

This is also where Grace's Fresh n' Ready line of vegetables is produced. The vegetables are sourced from farmers in that parish, giving a significant boost to agriculture there. Employment has been created for many within that community, especially the farmers in and around Hounslow, many of whom are young people.

Some 32 farmers are now contracted to Grace for this venture, 90 per cent from St Elizabeth. Grace works closely with them, teaching new farming techniques, providing seeds and chemicals for their crops through its Agro Grace subsidiary. Since the start of the year, Grace has purchased more than 132,000 kg of vegetables from the farmers to the tune of more than $9.3 million.

The facility which produces West Indian pepper mash and yellow Scotch bonnet pepper mash is also proving to be a sound investment for Grace. Since the start of the year, the company has purchased more than 129,000 kg of pepper from farmers, at a cost of over $11.5 million. Currently, Grace buys pepper from 56 farmers in the St Mary, Portland, St Catherine, Clarendon and St Elizabeth.

The five factories under the GraceKennedy banner are Grace Agro Processors, Grace Food Processors Division, Grace Food Processors Canning, Dairy Industries, and National Processors.