NESTLÉ JAMAICA said it might be able to export some of its products to Trinidad & Tobago following the closure of some plants there last week, but stressed that the Jamaican company would have to be more competitive.
General manager of Nestlé JMP, Jimmy Rawle, said the closure of part of the operation in Trinidad provided an opportunity for the Jamaican plant to expand its production.
Last Friday, the Financial Gleaner, in a report from the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), said 130 workers were sent home after Nestlé Trinidad and Tobago announced that it was closing down four plants which were no longer financially viable.
The Trinidadian arm, which has been producing a number of products including sweetened condensed milk and food drinks, said those items would now be imported from Nestlé's Jamaica and Brazil plants.
In a telephone interview with Wednesday Business, Mr. Rawle said that in order to be competitive, Nestlé Jamaica would have to re-organise to ensure they could produce at better prices, and that may involve making the posts of some of its workers redundant, a process which he said has already started.
"The implication is that if we can be competitive we could be exporting some Milo and condensed milk to Trinidad," said Mr. Rawle, noting that those were the production lines closed in the twin-island republic.
Mr. Rawle could not say whether the opportunity for expansion in production would result in an increase in intake of fresh milk from Jamaican dairy farmers, since he said the local firm was also faced with a declining market for its products.
Earlier this year, the Jamaica Dairy Farmers gave away thousands of gallons of fresh milk as they demonstrated in Kingston over a proposal by Nestlé to reduce the payment made to them on each gallon of the product. At that time, Nestlé said it was forced to do so because of a five per cent fall in consumer demand.
