GraceKennedy last Friday opened its post-harvest and packaging facility in Hounslow, St Elizabeth, making way for farmers to secure a ready and reliable market for their produce.

The plant is the result of a multi-lateral partnership known as the Improving Jamaica’s Agricultural Productivity Project (IJAP), which received funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), The Ministry of Agriculture and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and GraceKennedy.

The facility is approximately 8,800 square feet, and includes approximately 1,100 sq. feet of cold storage.

The company invested over $43 million to set up the plant, and started operations in June.

It currently employs 26 persons, but this number is expected to increase as demand grows. The facility has been equipped to produce, process and distribute produce to the retail and hotel trades. The crops which will initially be marketed include carrots, cabbage, lettuce, callaloo and sweet peppers. The plan is to extend this range to include sweet potatoes, onions and Irish potatoes.

The company has entered into long term contracts with an initial group of 17 farmers to supply vegetables to the plant and they, in turn, have employed 190 persons.

Grace Kennedy co-opted one of its divisions, Agro-Grace, which is one of the primary suppliers of seeds and chemicals to the farming community, to provide contract farmers with special discounts on seeds and pesticides, as well as technical advice, continued support and training.

The post-harvest and packaging plant complements another project which Grace is currently running in St Elizabeth — the production of pepper mash.

GraceKennedy contracted farmers to supply over 45,000 pounds of peppers to convert them into mash, the raw material for jerk seasonings and spicy sauces, and now, the company exports pepper mash to the UK, Belize, the USA and St Lucia, in addition to supplying local agro-processors.

“Last year, the value of our export of Grace brand products made from Jamaican ingredients was recorded at $508 million,” said GraceKennedy CEO Don Wehby at the handover ceremony. “What is perhaps more significant is the value of purchases from local farmers which amounts to approximately $917 million.”

Wehby disclosed that the company now exports 13 products, including juices, veggie meals, soups and vegetables. In addition GraceFoods exports 17 products which originate from other Jamaican factories, including canned ackees, callaloo, jerk seasoning and hot pepper sauces.

The company has recently invested $136 million to install additional processing and packaging facilities.