NEWPORT FERSAN, a Do-minican Republic/ Jamaican conglomerate, recently began operating locally from its plant at the Wherry Wharf complex, Newport East.
The company is utilising a state-of-the-art computerised blending format to produce a range of fertilisers capable of servicing the needs of the entire Jamaican agricultural sector.
The new facility is promising to revolutionise the local fertiliser industry by producing unique blends that are precisely calibrated, giving value for money to farmers as well as added cost efficiencies resulting from both its location and construction of a pier immediately behind the plant, which enables it to unload raw material directly from the ship to giant storage bins, as well as its less labour intensive computerised operation.
OPERATION VERY EFFICIENT
At the centrepiece of the plant is a system of bins that leads to a computerised mixing chamber that utilises centrifugal force in combining the various ingredients that make up the various blends.
General manager of the local operation, agriculturalist John Allen, says the operation is up to the task of supplying quality fertilisers to Jamaica's farming sector now in recovery mode following the onslaught of Hurricane Ivan.
"Our operation is very efficient, if we tell you the bag weighs 50 kilogrammes it will have net 50 kilogrammes," Allen said. In explaining the operation, he notes that after being mixed in the mixing chamber the fertiliser is weighed, bagged, sewn then taken by conveyors to a palletiser where it floats on a cushion of air "where one man can stack 60 bags in a short time without physical fatigue."
IMPACT ON DISTRIBUTORS
This is compared to other
situations which have to stack manually, therefore placing Newport-Fersan (Jamaica) ahead of the game in terms of critical production efficiencies.
The company which will be formally opened in mid-January ,has already received two shipments of raw materials from which it is manufacturing many types of fertilisers used locally as well as special blends for individual farmers.
Allen is confident that in time the investment in improved technology combined with the service of their well-trained technical sales force will enable distributors and the farming community to more than meet the demand of the local agricultural sector.
"We definitely are bringing value-added components to the market and this will no doubt translate into successes," he notes of the JAMPRO-assisted project.
