TRADE Winds Citrus Limited (TWCL) is looking to overseas markets as it searches for new revenue sources that will help offset rising operational costs as well as imports that threaten the very existence of the local citrus industry.

“We are looking at markets which can provide viable options for us, while still remaining completely committed to growing the local market,” says Peter McConnell, Managing Director of Trade Winds Citrus.

TWCL is also focusing its efforts on responding to the needs of its consumers. They are well-known for Tru-Juice Premium Quality Juices, but produces other juice products such as Wakefield Juices, Freshhh Fruit and Juice drinks, and Tru-Tea. By utilising local home grown fruits such as Otaheite Apple, Orange, June Plum, Ortanique, Sorrel, etc the company has increased its portfolio and has established itself as the delicious alternative to traditional home-made juices.

McConnell says the company has embarked on a campaign to ensure its consumers are completely satisfied with their products. “From the grove to the bottle, our orange juice is 100 per cent juice and 100 per cent Jamaican. We are happy to say that we have always been strong supporters of local agriculture and business. I’m proud to see the growth of our company over the years as one of the pioneers in the juice manufacturing sector,” McConnell continues. “In today’s competitive world, we have to do what it takes to stay on top. For us that means pleasing the consumers and listening to their requests and comments.”

He adds: “Some of our juice flavours were added because of the demand for those varieties of juices. The introduction of our ‘No Sugar Added’ line of juices, which is endorsed by the Medical Association of Jamaica, was created to satisfy the needs of the health conscious. We are devoted to providing the best quality and freshest products that our consumers can buy and we are grateful for their unwavering support.”

The local citrus industry is made up of thousands of farmers with from less than an acre to almost 3,000 acres, who mostly rely on the local fresh fruit trade, “roadside and market higglers”, along with the two processing plants to buy fruit to make concentrate.

Most of the concentrates that are produced locally will end up in local beverage; whether 100 per cent juice or a juice-drink with five to 50 per cent juice.

But increases in the cost of fuel, electricity and sugar are forcing the company to look beyond Jamaican shores. Hikes in the cost of fuel and electricity have affected farming, manufacturing and distribution. However, the manufacturing and distribution of chilled beverages is even more sensitive because so much more energy is used to keep the product cold.

From the point of squeezing, blending, filling, storage, transportation to the customer, the ‘cold chain’ is maintained, requiring a substantial consumption of energy. TWCL says it has absorbed a 49 per cent increase in the rate per kilowatt hours used, adding that the problem has been exacerbated by a 100 per cent hike in the cost of sugar.

Meanwhile, TWCL says the local citrus industry on a whole faces an even bigger threat from competing imports that can potentially cripple the industry. Due to imports of ‘bulk concentrate’ and finished orange juice products from within Caricom and outside of Caricom, inventories at both citrus processing facilities are higher than they should be. According to TWCL, the level of excess is similar to the amount imported in 2009 and the impact, therefore, is that local producers will have to limit the amount of oranges they can buy from farmers solely because inventory levels are too high.