AXE AND ADZE, Hanover

Four years after Western Spices began operations in the deep rural community of Axe and Adze in an effort to provide employment opportunities for area residents, the organisation is seeking investors in a bid to tap into the lucrative export market.

“We are still working on the business plan for the factory and machinery and all of that, but the type of sponsors that we are looking right now is somebody who’s interested to merge with us as we try to expand….. someone who really wants to be a part of Western Spices,” said Nadine Aired, the business coordinator at the Hanover- based company.

Western Spices was among the 80 exhibitors at the recent Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Expo 2013, which was held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre under the theme ,’Services Globalisation…….Enabling Business Development.

The company currently manufactures spice products made from turmeric, including liquid curry, turmeric pepper sauce and turmeric hot pepper sauce, from the canteen of the Church of God Universal in Axe and Adze.

The products are mainly sold in supermarkets throughout the parishes of St James and Hanover.

Chief Executive Officer of Western Spices, Rupert Shippey, told the Jamaica Observer West that the company was started out of concern for the number of unemployed young people in the community. He said the company creates employment through the farming of turmeric in the Axe and Adze and the production of value-added products made from turmeric at the factory.

The plant currently employs 20 persons.