BY SHAMILLE SCOTT Business reporter scotts@jamaicaobserver.com Wednesday, March 26, 2014
A local company plans to build a $40-million packaging house at the Plantain Garden River (PGR) Agro Park in St Thomas.
The unnamed entity was identified by Agro Invest Corporation (AIC), the managing agency of the island's agro parks, while the the procurement process has started for the construction of a $33-million packaging house at New Forest/Duff House, by the government at the border of Manchester and St Elizabeth.
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| The Yallahs Agro Park in St Thomas is currently benefiting from an irrigation system which is expected to assist in boosting onion production. |
Two more agro parks, in addition to the current seven locations, will be rolled out in the new financial year.
One will be set up at Meylersfield, Westmoreland, featuring fish harvesting and the agro processing of ackee and callaloo--invariably, that agro park will eventually include a packaging house. The other park is to be established in Eddington, Trelawny, and it will include livestock production.
Indeed, the development of agro parks — dedicated to the production of crops that includes all facets along the agriculture value chain — is moving ahead steadily.
The agro-park model being employed requires the Government to identify lands in its portfolio and put in place requisite infrastructure to ensure consistent production as well as assist with marketing, while the farmers are responsible for investing in the production. Construction of the packaging house at PGR will begin soon, Everton Spencer, CEO of AIC told the Business Observer.
"We want to do the storage and packaging in a fashion that will make the goods suitable for exports, it is to be at a standard that is superior to the system that we are accustomed to," said Spencer. more
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