By Denise Clarke, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
A MAJOR exporter is urging farmers to step up their production of local produce, some of which are being grown on foreign soil and sold overseas as authentic Jamaican produce.
Rita Symes-Hylton, a past president of the Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA), told farmers at a marketing workshop held at the Knockalva Agricultural School in Hanover on Wednesday that exported crops, including scotch bonnet pepper and pumpkin, are being grown in other countries and marketed in the United States as Jamaican produce. The favoured prices some produce attract are also attracting the imitators, she noted, who in turn are selling the imitation goods at a lower price than the authentic produce.
"They scrape out all the Jamaican seeds, grow them there and put them in a bag that looks like it came from Jamaica and they sell it," said Mrs. Symes-Hylton. "Those countries that are importing are looking at the price of the Jamaican produce and say we are going to grow ackee because its $5 or $6 a pound."
However, Mrs. Symes-Hylton also chided farmers for not keeping up with technological advances and new farming techniques, in order to diversify their crops to meet market demands. She cited the high demand in the U.S. for Jamaican scotch bonnet pepper, a market that she said Jamaica is losing out because of our inability to produce enough to meet the demand.
NO PEPPERS
"From September last year to January or February of this year there were no peppers going out of Montego Bay. Other countries saw it and took up the market. We lost a very good market in New York in the winter because no peppers were going out and when the Jamaican patty shops could not get the scotch bonnet peppers they took their business elsewhere," she expressed.
The market for dasheen and red skin sweet potatoes is another area in which Mrs. Symes-Hylton urged farmers to increase production for export. She added that the market for these and other Jamaican produce is large enough to support local farmers, but good farming practices are essential to achieve optimum output.
"We complain about the cost of production but we have to change the way we produce," she charged. "You can't get top dollar for second quality products and even if it's a first quality product, there is a market that determines the price."
