President of the Clarendon Association for Jamaica Agriculture Society (JAS) branches, Denton Alvaranga has advised that Jamaicans should prepare for high sorrel prices later this month following heavy rainfall over the last two months, which dampened normal crop yield for farmers.

Alvaranga, who was speaking at a JAS meeting with the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, told the Jamaica Observer that consumers can expect to pay at least $250 per pound for the fruit which is commonly used within the Jamaican households during the festive season.

He said not only has the excessive rainfall slowed production for farmers, but the existence of the rootrot disease caused by a soil-borne fungus, which intensifies when water settles around the root of the plant, has resulted in a decline in sorrel production by roughly 70 per cent this year.

“The acreage was not established so the amount that normally would have been planted was, not. In terms of percentage, its roughly 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the normal production. I have been out in the fields and fields that normally would have been in sorrel have none,” he told the Caribbean Business Report.

“The cost of producing sorrel is very high. It takes roughly $40 to produce a pound of sorrel and when farmers reap and are to sell it, the price he gets for it is very inconsistent, sometimes $50 or $60. Right now I’m getting $100 per pound on my farm; from that I pay $30 to the reapers. We are projecting in the next week or two, coming down to Christmas, that sorrel will be somewhere between $150 to $200 per pound to sell to farmgate and they will add another $50 per pound as mark-up to sell to consumers,” Alvaranga said.

It’s a similar story for gungo peas.

“Those plants need a dry spell and when they should have been flowering we had continuous rainfall, so the plants kept on growing. Now it’s December; gungo would be out there now but there is very little. All the trees are tall, full of leaves but very little flowering and very little fruit. We are looking for most of the gungo late January, February,” the president said.

According to Alvaranga, Jamaica’s traditional sorrel crop is usually planted in August and harvested in December. But during that period, heavy rains from a trough associated with Hurrican Irma lashed the island. The new variety, bashment, takes only three months for production and is cultivated throughout the year.

Government has been eyeing export markets for the product and its value-added derivatives such as squashes, jam, cordials, flavoured water and even ice-cream. Internationally, sorrel is mostly purchased by Jamaicans living overseas, but according to Alvaranga, the product has increased in competitiveness because of its nutritional benefits.

“The demand is tremendous in the Christmas season, but outside of that there is no demand, so a lot of marketing needs to take place for the fresh sorrel. Sorrel can be dried but it’s a very tedious process and it takes about eight to 10 lbs of fresh sorrel to produce a pound of dried sorrel. Secondly, that’s not our culture; our culture is reaping it fresh and utilising it.

“If we were to have people overseas encouraging Jamaicans to purchase throughout the year, that would be joy to the farmers,” he said.

Currently, processors like Virginia Dare, Tru Juice and Jamaican Teas purchase local sorrel from farmers for use in value-added derivatives. Other companies import sorrel extract for production.

Still, the purchase of sorrel by of the three main processors is not enough to take up the supply of sorrel from local farmers.

Consequently, the farmers turn to the parochial market and supermarkets to offload production.

Up to 2016, sorrel production totalled 1,187 tonnes an increase of 221 tonnes, over 2015, according to data presented by the Ministry of Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries. Primary parishes for production include Clarendon, Manchester, St Elizabeth, Hanover, St Thomas and St Catherine.

“The answer I see with sorrel has to be with processing. I’m envisioning a time when just as how a customer would go and purchase a bottle of soft drink, they would want to purchase a bottle of sorrel. It’s not hard to produce, and some parishes have the ecology that is favourable to the production of sorrel, and it’s also a good employer of labour.

“Many farmers earn good money in the Christmas season, but the aspect of marketing still needs to be addressed. If we were to have people overseas encouraging Jamaicans to purchase throughout the year, it would bring joy to the farmer,” he said.

— Karena Bennett