Shaw sets focus on expanding coconut industry
Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Audley Shaw is urging coconut growers to start a planting programme now in order to rebuild Jamaica’s coconut industry and return it to, or even surpass, peak production levels formerly attained.
“Our focus now should be squarely turned on demanding how we will move our coconut industry forward, given the noted increase in global demand,” Minister Shaw told the growers at their annual general meeting last Saturday, May 5 at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston,
Lamenting the fact that coconut production has declined in Jamaica despite an increase in global demand, Shaw said that his job was to lead production back to its peak.
“We are going to build back coconut,” he declared.
With reference to the current impasse regarding the determination of the ownership of the Coconut Industry Board’s shares in Seprod, Shaw told the coconut growers that his focus was not on how to get a part of the value of those shares, but rather on how to use those shares to create a more vibrant and expanded industry.
He reported that his ministry and the Coconut Board had agreed on a three-pronged formula for the way forward, with the first call on the resources of the board being to build a strong platform for expansion of the industry, involving increased production of seedlings and a strong research and extension programme.
The strategy also includes the acquisition of over 1,700 acres of farm lands in Water Valley and Unity Valley in St Mary. Subject to Cabinet approval, the Coconut Board also plans to acquire the Richmond Cocoa Fermentry, also in St Mary.
In order to give effect to the three-pronged strategy, Minister Shaw said he would seek Cabinet approval to retain the Coconut Industry Board as a statutory body with the primary mandate for crop development; allow the board to form a commercial subsidiary to undertake the commercial development of the properties, while the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority will retain responsibility for the regulation of the industry.
