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Sandals farming project impresses Harvard forum
Hotel provides vegetable seeds, guaranteed market for cropsBy Judith Wilson
Monday, December 03, 2007
Why was it so hard to get quality vegetables on a consistent basis in Jamaica, frustrated purchasing managers from the Caribbean's leading hotel chain, Sandals Resorts, fretted at a training workshop nine years ago.
But concluding that fretting alone would not bring vegetables to the tables of its sophisticated guests, Sandals decided on a decisive course of action, a course that recently caught the attention of the Harvard University John F Kennedy School of Government in the United States.
Pictured from left are: Purchasing manager for Sandals Royal Caribbean, Warren Toolsie; Chairman of the Mafoota Farmers' Co-operative Society Limited, Claude Shakespere; General Manager of Sandals Montego Bay, Horace Peterkin; Sandals Montego Bay's Purchasing Manager, Garfield McGhie; RADA's Regional Marketing Manager, Sadie Dixon; Sandals Montego Bay's Executive Chef, Lawrence Lindo and Regional PR Manager, Marlon Tingling. The group was on a fact-finding tour of a lettuce farm in Mafoota, St James.
Sandals forged a partnership with the state-run Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and farmers in St James, St Ann, St Elizabeth and Hanover, to pump up the supply of quality crops on a consistent basis, giving rise to the Sandals/RADA Farming Project.
None of the purchasing managers or the RADA personnel could have dreamed of the success their project would realise. Or that in time it would be one of the formal case studies featured at the recent two-day Economic Opportunity Series put on by no less than Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government in Boston, in company with others from major corporations from the United Kingdom and the United States such as Citibank, Microsoft, Intercontinental Group and Exon.
"We felt proud to have had such broad interest expressed in this Sandals project, as well as our other community initiatives," said Patrick Lynch, Sandals director of finance and planning who represented the resort chain at the forum.
"It is a growing feeling that these programmes are vital if companies are to co-exist within communities. It's not a matter of philanthropy, but an expansion of economic opportunity in these communities through collaborative actions," Lynch argued.
The Harvard Series came out of a growing recognition of the need to make the links between business activity and poverty alleviation, and the Sandals project was presented in the contest of a report by Harvard on "The Role of the Tourism Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity", which examined how tourism companies could enhance their contribution to economic opportunities in developing countries.
Lynch suggested to the forum that there was need for corporate social responsibility initiatives to be relevant on strictly commercial lines, or else they would not survive.
"The company must benefit and the communities must benefit," he insisted.
That is just what happened to the four northwestern parishes and the farmers who are currently benefiting from the Sandals/RADA Farming Project.
One such farmer is 52-year-old Grace Smith, a resident of Mafoota, St James, who has been growing local vegetables such as tomato, lettuce, onion, callalloo, and cabbage since the 1970's.
Smith considers herself a pioneer in vegetable farming and has now added exotic vegetables such as squash and zucchini to her field; and she is reaping the benefits, she testified.
Smith has been supplying the hotel sector on a consistent basis with her crops, and is now the salesperson for the 10-year-old Mafoota Agricultural Co-operative Society Limited, which groups 14 active farmers and is currently processing membership for another 14 farmers.
"I think the project is a good initiative.we need some more companies to do the same thing to guarantee our market," she said.
Under the project, the farmers from Mafoota, St James; Douglas Castle in St Ann; Gillards, St Elizabeth and Santoy in Hanover, are provided by Sandals with exotic seeds such as yellow sweet pepper, sweet corn, red cabbage and yellow squash among others on a crop lien basis.
RADA provides the technical assistance for growing exotic fruits and vegetables which are then purchased by Sandals, guaranteeing them a ready market.
"It is a very, very good project. We have seen the benefits and sales have been very good, despite the fluctuations in supply and demand," disclosed Sadie Dixon, RADA regional marketing officer.
However, Dixon acknowledged that there had been some challenging times caused by hurricanes and periods of drought.
"When these natural disasters occur especially during drought periods, we have problems with consistency in terms of the volumes of produce," she noted.
In response, RADA was trying to source funding to complete an irrigation project to assist in that area, she said, and Sandals Montego Bay, which works closely with the Mafoota farmers, was also assisting farmers to source funds to construct two fresh water ponds in the Mafoota community, to water their fields in times of drought.
In the meantime, to keep things flowing, the hotel visits the farmers on a regular basis to check on the state of things.
"These visits are planned three to four times per year so that we can assess how the farmers are doing and discuss challenges that we might be able to help them with," said Horace Peterkin, general manager for Sandals Montego Bay.
The 14 participating farmers are also invited to the hotel to be updated on the hotel's needs and concerns and observe how dishes and menus are prepared with the vegetables they produced.
Buoyed by the Jamaican success, Sandals is replicating the farming project in St Lucia, where over 50 farmers are enlisted in the programme, of which 75 per cent are women. Some of these farmers were into banana but have gone into other fruit crops, due to the declining market for bananas.
Eustace Vitalis, agricultural officer and purchasing coordinator for Sandals' Eastern Caribbean operations, said that there had been a high level of sensitisation within the farming community there with regards to the Sandals initiative.
"This has filtered to the wider tourism sector thus encouraging an increase in the purchase of local agricultural commodities by other hotels/resorts," Vitalis said.
Hotel provides vegetable seeds, guaranteed market for cropsBy Judith Wilson
Monday, December 03, 2007
Why was it so hard to get quality vegetables on a consistent basis in Jamaica, frustrated purchasing managers from the Caribbean's leading hotel chain, Sandals Resorts, fretted at a training workshop nine years ago.
But concluding that fretting alone would not bring vegetables to the tables of its sophisticated guests, Sandals decided on a decisive course of action, a course that recently caught the attention of the Harvard University John F Kennedy School of Government in the United States.
Pictured from left are: Purchasing manager for Sandals Royal Caribbean, Warren Toolsie; Chairman of the Mafoota Farmers' Co-operative Society Limited, Claude Shakespere; General Manager of Sandals Montego Bay, Horace Peterkin; Sandals Montego Bay's Purchasing Manager, Garfield McGhie; RADA's Regional Marketing Manager, Sadie Dixon; Sandals Montego Bay's Executive Chef, Lawrence Lindo and Regional PR Manager, Marlon Tingling. The group was on a fact-finding tour of a lettuce farm in Mafoota, St James. Sandals forged a partnership with the state-run Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and farmers in St James, St Ann, St Elizabeth and Hanover, to pump up the supply of quality crops on a consistent basis, giving rise to the Sandals/RADA Farming Project.
None of the purchasing managers or the RADA personnel could have dreamed of the success their project would realise. Or that in time it would be one of the formal case studies featured at the recent two-day Economic Opportunity Series put on by no less than Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government in Boston, in company with others from major corporations from the United Kingdom and the United States such as Citibank, Microsoft, Intercontinental Group and Exon.
"We felt proud to have had such broad interest expressed in this Sandals project, as well as our other community initiatives," said Patrick Lynch, Sandals director of finance and planning who represented the resort chain at the forum.
"It is a growing feeling that these programmes are vital if companies are to co-exist within communities. It's not a matter of philanthropy, but an expansion of economic opportunity in these communities through collaborative actions," Lynch argued.
The Harvard Series came out of a growing recognition of the need to make the links between business activity and poverty alleviation, and the Sandals project was presented in the contest of a report by Harvard on "The Role of the Tourism Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity", which examined how tourism companies could enhance their contribution to economic opportunities in developing countries.
Lynch suggested to the forum that there was need for corporate social responsibility initiatives to be relevant on strictly commercial lines, or else they would not survive.
"The company must benefit and the communities must benefit," he insisted.
That is just what happened to the four northwestern parishes and the farmers who are currently benefiting from the Sandals/RADA Farming Project.
One such farmer is 52-year-old Grace Smith, a resident of Mafoota, St James, who has been growing local vegetables such as tomato, lettuce, onion, callalloo, and cabbage since the 1970's.
Smith considers herself a pioneer in vegetable farming and has now added exotic vegetables such as squash and zucchini to her field; and she is reaping the benefits, she testified.
Smith has been supplying the hotel sector on a consistent basis with her crops, and is now the salesperson for the 10-year-old Mafoota Agricultural Co-operative Society Limited, which groups 14 active farmers and is currently processing membership for another 14 farmers.
"I think the project is a good initiative.we need some more companies to do the same thing to guarantee our market," she said.
Under the project, the farmers from Mafoota, St James; Douglas Castle in St Ann; Gillards, St Elizabeth and Santoy in Hanover, are provided by Sandals with exotic seeds such as yellow sweet pepper, sweet corn, red cabbage and yellow squash among others on a crop lien basis.
RADA provides the technical assistance for growing exotic fruits and vegetables which are then purchased by Sandals, guaranteeing them a ready market.
"It is a very, very good project. We have seen the benefits and sales have been very good, despite the fluctuations in supply and demand," disclosed Sadie Dixon, RADA regional marketing officer.
However, Dixon acknowledged that there had been some challenging times caused by hurricanes and periods of drought.
"When these natural disasters occur especially during drought periods, we have problems with consistency in terms of the volumes of produce," she noted.
In response, RADA was trying to source funding to complete an irrigation project to assist in that area, she said, and Sandals Montego Bay, which works closely with the Mafoota farmers, was also assisting farmers to source funds to construct two fresh water ponds in the Mafoota community, to water their fields in times of drought.
In the meantime, to keep things flowing, the hotel visits the farmers on a regular basis to check on the state of things.
"These visits are planned three to four times per year so that we can assess how the farmers are doing and discuss challenges that we might be able to help them with," said Horace Peterkin, general manager for Sandals Montego Bay.
The 14 participating farmers are also invited to the hotel to be updated on the hotel's needs and concerns and observe how dishes and menus are prepared with the vegetables they produced.
Buoyed by the Jamaican success, Sandals is replicating the farming project in St Lucia, where over 50 farmers are enlisted in the programme, of which 75 per cent are women. Some of these farmers were into banana but have gone into other fruit crops, due to the declining market for bananas.
Eustace Vitalis, agricultural officer and purchasing coordinator for Sandals' Eastern Caribbean operations, said that there had been a high level of sensitisation within the farming community there with regards to the Sandals initiative.
"This has filtered to the wider tourism sector thus encouraging an increase in the purchase of local agricultural commodities by other hotels/resorts," Vitalis said.
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