JP Tropical Foods Limited (JP) will in March launch a new cassava processing facility that should produce up to 5,000 kilogrammes (five tonnes) of bammies and other cassava products per week.

Rolf Simmonds, commercial director at JP told the Business Observer that the facility, located in Chocolate Walk, Annotto Bay, St Mary is an expansion of the existing headquarters, which processes items for its food distribution business across the Caribbean.

The expansion effort is projected to cost over $5 million.

The new facility was built to expand on the range of products offered by the company and is a line extension of the existing ‘Simply Fresh’ brand. New packing equipment, graters, dryers, and molds for the bammies were brought in recently at a cost of US$30,000 ($2.6 million).

Simmonds said the investment is in keeping with the company’s strategy to diversify, expand and remain nimble. Jamaica Producers, which at one time primarily produced bananas for sale and export, has developed a tradition of innovation, particularly following the destruction of the local banana industry when the World Trade Organisation in 2005 voted against the European Union (EU) banana tariffs, which gave preferential treatment to bananas coming from countries in the Caribbean, including Jamaica.

The ruling against the most favoured nation (MFN) treatment caused the local industry to become uncompetitive when faced with competition from larger countries. But JP has bounced back and diversified into other markets and products, the latest being cassava.

Simmonds told the Business Observer that the expansion into cassava production will be a win-win for consumers, the company and other producers of cassava-based products that the company also supplies. “We are planting more and more cassava every week. We also see the bammy business as a growth business. We are a vertically integrated system, we grow the cassava and sell to various producers,” Simmonds said. He added that because of the large capacity for cassava production that exists, there is sometimes an oversupply of cassava. The expansion is also a way for the company to find additional uses for the extra produce. The plan took form in November 2008 when the company began adding acres of cassavas to the existing supply. Now, the aim is to have up to 70 acres by the time full capacity is achieved.

Simmonds projects that with the increased production and availability, local consumers will buy more Jamaican products. He disclosed that in addition to the bammies and other cassava products such as chips, JP recently market tested peeled green bananas and found that the consumers loved the convenience of the products. The bananas will be another addition to the JP line this year. The bananas will be packaged in vacuum sealed packages and available in supermarkets across the island.

“We are bringing to the Jamaican consumer a line of products that is completely fresh and convenient,” Simmonds said. “The idea is that we want to bring the consumer experience to life so that people will consume more cassava-based products in multiple forms. People will consume more of it and less of the other imported products.”

“We really believe that there needs to be a line of locally grown products and a home for locally grown starches here in Jamaica. We are only reliant on overseas starches,” Simmonds reasoned.

Simmonds expects the investment will pay off with an anticipated returns of up to $10 million in revenue by the end of the first year.