Tweet
Major food packaging plant for Manchester, says Shaw
GARFIELD MYERS, Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Monday, October 06, 2008
Christiana, Manchester - A major vegetable and food packaging plant at Coleyville in northern Manchester, which at its zenith could be turning profits of $200 million, is "on the horizon", says Finance Minister and member of parliament for North East Manchester Audley Shaw.
Shaw told guests at the launch of a Jamaica Exporters' Association export and business centre at the offices of the Christiana Potato Growers Co-operative in Christiana last Monday that the packaging plant would be part and parcel of an integrated drive to lift agriculture using science and technology.
Shaw spoke of a "partnership emerging" involving the co-op which has large, underdeveloped infrastructural facilities at Coleyville; the Montego Bay-based company Caribbean Producers, which supplies large hotels and supermarkets; and the Government.
The "partnership" will, according to Shaw, "put a modern packaging plant at Coleyville that is going to package goods . at world-class standards . for sale initially to the local sector" including the hotel industry and over time also for export.
Central to the operation will be the production of crops such as cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers cauliflower, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes with the expectation being that many farmers will have benefited from modern technologies, including greenhouses and tissue culture.
Bottom line projections were good, Shaw said. "The initial cash flow projection is $1.5 billion of sales when it reaches maturity or a potential $200 million of profits. while at the same time being a marketing outlet and a conduit for our farmers both large and small", he said.
A culture of hi-tech farming, Shaw added, was already being developed largely as a result of the success of the greenhouse pilot project in Devon, North-East Manchester where 40-50 square feet of vegetables, including sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and the "sweetest strawberries you could ever find" are "actively in production".
Models of smaller greenhouse systems that would cost as low as $200,000 had been designed with smaller farmers in mind he said.
At the offices of the Potato Growers Co-op, a tissue culture facility "not for experimentation" but for commercial purposes had been developed "to produce clean, disease-free planting material on a commercially viable" basis to "serve hundreds, if not thousands, of farmers," Shaw said.
A range of crops, including Irish potatoes, sweet peppers and ginger were expected to benefit from tissue culture.
Shaw told of how an "initial pilot project" to propagate sweet potatoes, using tissue culture, had provided "absolutely dramatic yields" of 15,000 pounds to 18,000 pounds per acre compared to 6,000 pounds per acre using untreated plants.
To deal with the increased production and increased storage and packaging capacity improved markets would have to be identified, Shaw said.
He spoke of plans for increased marketing of produce, not only locally - targeting the rapidly expanding hotel sector - but also markets overseas including the wider Caribbean.
Shaw noted that sister Caricom (Caribbean Community) countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados - which should be natural markets for Jamaica - were importing farm produce from the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
"Why should that be?" asked Shaw. "There is no reason we should not be selling a range of products, fresh and processed, to our sister islands."
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._SAYS_SHAW.asp
GARFIELD MYERS, Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Monday, October 06, 2008
Christiana, Manchester - A major vegetable and food packaging plant at Coleyville in northern Manchester, which at its zenith could be turning profits of $200 million, is "on the horizon", says Finance Minister and member of parliament for North East Manchester Audley Shaw.
Shaw told guests at the launch of a Jamaica Exporters' Association export and business centre at the offices of the Christiana Potato Growers Co-operative in Christiana last Monday that the packaging plant would be part and parcel of an integrated drive to lift agriculture using science and technology.
Shaw spoke of a "partnership emerging" involving the co-op which has large, underdeveloped infrastructural facilities at Coleyville; the Montego Bay-based company Caribbean Producers, which supplies large hotels and supermarkets; and the Government.
The "partnership" will, according to Shaw, "put a modern packaging plant at Coleyville that is going to package goods . at world-class standards . for sale initially to the local sector" including the hotel industry and over time also for export.
Central to the operation will be the production of crops such as cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers cauliflower, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes with the expectation being that many farmers will have benefited from modern technologies, including greenhouses and tissue culture.
Bottom line projections were good, Shaw said. "The initial cash flow projection is $1.5 billion of sales when it reaches maturity or a potential $200 million of profits. while at the same time being a marketing outlet and a conduit for our farmers both large and small", he said.
A culture of hi-tech farming, Shaw added, was already being developed largely as a result of the success of the greenhouse pilot project in Devon, North-East Manchester where 40-50 square feet of vegetables, including sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and the "sweetest strawberries you could ever find" are "actively in production".
Models of smaller greenhouse systems that would cost as low as $200,000 had been designed with smaller farmers in mind he said.
At the offices of the Potato Growers Co-op, a tissue culture facility "not for experimentation" but for commercial purposes had been developed "to produce clean, disease-free planting material on a commercially viable" basis to "serve hundreds, if not thousands, of farmers," Shaw said.
A range of crops, including Irish potatoes, sweet peppers and ginger were expected to benefit from tissue culture.
Shaw told of how an "initial pilot project" to propagate sweet potatoes, using tissue culture, had provided "absolutely dramatic yields" of 15,000 pounds to 18,000 pounds per acre compared to 6,000 pounds per acre using untreated plants.
To deal with the increased production and increased storage and packaging capacity improved markets would have to be identified, Shaw said.
He spoke of plans for increased marketing of produce, not only locally - targeting the rapidly expanding hotel sector - but also markets overseas including the wider Caribbean.
Shaw noted that sister Caricom (Caribbean Community) countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados - which should be natural markets for Jamaica - were importing farm produce from the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
"Why should that be?" asked Shaw. "There is no reason we should not be selling a range of products, fresh and processed, to our sister islands."
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._SAYS_SHAW.asp