New factory provides ready market for Clarendon farmers
GRACEKENNEDY says its sixth factory — Grace Agro Processors (GAP) — opened at Denbigh, Clarendon in March this year, will be working with farmers in and around May Pen, as well as across Jamaica, to source inputs for the manufacturing of products for local consumption and export.
The 60,000-square foot facility employs 70 people, with that number reaching as high as 120 during peak periods of production. GAP Denbigh currently has three lines up and running, Grace said in a release. One has the capacity to produce vacuum sealed, frozen produce such as yams and sweet potato; another produces canned products, including ackee and callaloo, and the other is a bottling line, where the firm’s popular jerk seasoning is produced.
“GraceKennedy supports Jamaica, and this is one way that has been good for our company. Our partnership with the Jamaican farmers has been mutually beneficial, and we hope will assist us in the bid to secure steady and consistent supply to satisfy the demand for our products both at home and abroad,” said GraceKennedy Group CEO Don Wehby.
Grace Foods Domestic CEO, Frank James, underscored the point, noting that, at the peak of the ackee crop, GAP Denbigh will be depending on supplies of approximately 13,000 dozens of ackees each day to satisfy its export demand. Grace canned ackee is shipped to the UK, USA, Canada and the Caribbean.
GAP Denbigh gets the raw material for its canned callaloo from the Grace Agro Processors facility in Hounslow, St Elizabeth. The product comes shredded in bulk packaging, and is then canned and processed at the Denbigh plant.
Grace Jerk Seasoning, also manufactured with pepper mash from the Hounslow plant, at GAP Denbigh, is exported to the US and Canadian markets. The product is also shipped in bulk to Grace Foods UK, where it is reprocessed for retail sale.
“We are pleased to have opened this facility and look forward to the value it will add, not only to the community in Clarendon and its environs, but to the Grace Foods quality line of products, and our business overall,” said Wehby.
