AGRO-INVEST Corporation (AIC) has moved to stake its claim to a packing house facility in Manchester after tensions arose between the government body and New Forest/Duff House Water Users group, who both claim that the facility was given to them by the Government of Jamaica.

In a release, AIC revealed that the New Forest/Duff House Water Users group has reached out to several media entities with claims of ownership of the packing house facility, but has not to date presented documents to support ownership of the property.

“They’re insisting that the facility is theirs and they want to operate it, and that just cannot be because it is a government facility that’s under our management,” Alecia Brown Forbes, manager of marketing and communications at AIC, reiterated in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

According to AIC, the packing house facility was developed under the conditions of an investment loan from a multilateral organisation to the Government of Jamaica under the Agricultural Competitiveness Programme. Upon completion of the facility in 2018, and after investing US$18 million in its development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries instructed the National Land Agency to transfer ownership of the property to the AIC. The handover took place in May 2019.

Since then, Brown Forbes said, the facility has been leased to farmers who wish to use the packing house, which is an “arrangement we have with any other facility that we manage; it’s for the lease to cover overheads and expenditure”.

However, with the New Forest/Duff House Water Users group now claiming ownership of the packing house, members of AIC’s board of directors, including both the CEO and chairman, have met with members of that organisation on several occasions to “create an amicable solution to the occupancy of the packing house”.

Forbes Brown also told the Business Observer that AIC has proposed a public-private partnership with the group for the management, operation and utilisation of the property. As part of the terms of the partnership, both the AIC and the group would appoint four members each, and one independent person, to serve on a joint board of directors, with chairmanship between either organisation.

Moreover, the corporation said it would consider the group as first tenant and would, therefore, provide the necessary support to help it meet the conditions for leasing the property.

“We’ve gone as far as to offer business planning services, because they seemed to be coming around, and they said they would try to work with us and go through the right channel of leasing the facility — and [then] things went downhill. They said that they wanted to purchase a machine to put inside and they actually went ahead and purchased the machine. But things are pretty much at a standstill between the corporation and them, and we are still willing to work with them but they are not willing to work with us,” Forbes Brown pointed out.

However, CEO of AIC Al Powell told Business Observer that if the New Forest/Duff House Water Users group wants to manage the operation of the packing house facility, it must first meet certain requirements.

“They must demonstrate the capacity to manage the place, demonstrate that they have a market for the output, demonstrate that they have the equipment to process the goods, and that they have capital to drive the whole process,” he said.

The CEO also disclosed that the corporation has given the group until October 11 to submit information outlining that it has met said requirements.

In justifying the AIC’s ownership of the packing house, he noted: “Agro-Invest Corporation is an investment company that manages, among other things, [government-owned] agro-parks. All these agro-parks are equipped with tractors, technical personnel, and with facilities like the one we’re talking about.”

He added that with the Manchester-based packing house comprising over 4,000 square feet, the scope of its management would be out of the reach of the New Forest/Duff House Water Users group.

Notwithstanding, the AIC indicated that it has “assisted the group in preparing a business plan/proposal for them to seek the necessary financing for their business”.

“They were reassured that investor(s) leasing the property would be tied into a contractual agreement to take produce from farmers within the group and provide market-linkage opportunities,” the corporation continued.