Jamaica Producers (JP) Group on Friday, June 3, 2022, officially signed over 87 plots of land on JP Farms’ Chovey Farm property in St Mary to farmers in the community of Coleraine, an informal settlement located on the property.

The signing of the agreement, the company indicates, is expected to change the lives of more than 250 people with farmers eventually receiving titles to the plots of land they currently occupy.

Receiving secure titles to their homes will provide farmers with a platform to buy, sell and engage in regulated development of their individual plots, supported by the ability to now secure loans.

JP is a large employer in the parish of St Mary. Its operations in the parish include JP Tropical Foods Limited, a producer of tropical foods in Jamaica. Bananas, pineapples, plantains and coconuts are grown and harvested on the 160-plus acres farm in St Mary, and sold locally and internationally under the JP St Mary brand.

The land given to farmers and their families is the latest in a number of corporate social responsibility initiatives executed by the company, which also contributes to education in the parish and committed 500 acres towards offsetting carbon emissions in the Annotto Bay valley in St Mary.

The current gift of land to farmers, according to JP, solidifies a long-term commitment made by the company to the members of Coleraine community to regularise and develop the area into a safe, well-maintained residential neighbourhood.

“The Coleraine Land Grant Project will give effect to one of the most meaningful community-based corporate social responsibility projects that the JP Group has ever carried out in their home parish of St Mary,” the company said in its release on the handing over.

Largest employer

The Coleraine Land Grant Project commenced a few years ago with the formation of the Coleraine Pines Benevolent Society, a friendly society established by JP and the residents of Coleraine for the regularisation, management and lawful development of the community and to administer the granting of individual titles to residents of Coleraine.

In commenting on the project, JP CEO Jeffrey Hall stated, “St Mary is JP’s home parish. As the largest employer in the parish, through JP Farms we see ourselves first and foremost as members of a vibrant community.

“Today signifies another major investment by our group in the potential of St Mary and marks the beginning of a long-term partnership with our neighbours at Coleraine, based on mutual respect, to continue to develop St Mary as a place of choice to work and live.”

Dr Norman Dunn, minister of state in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce and Member of Parliament of St Mary Southeastern, commented at the official event, “This step we’re taking today embodies the true essence of corporate social responsibility. JP, an organisation with deep roots in a community, really addresses, contributes to, and supports the needs of its residents in an effort to improve their lives. The people of this community are stakeholders in Jamaica Producers. They’re the ones who are literally on the ground, day-to-day, making this business grow.

“What is happening here today signifies JP’s supporting and empowering community members and their families to live out their dreams. My hope is that Coleraine will use this as the springboard to make a lasting impression and build a strong foundation for the next generation and live the dream of prosperity that I believe we can all attain here.”

At the end of the handing-over ceremony, Jeffrey Hall, on behalf of JP Group, presented a financial grant of J$250,000.00, which is a community development grant for the Coleraine Benevolent Society, to be used for the further improvement of the Coleraine neighbourhood.