Hugh Martin
AGRICULTURE MINISTER Roger Clarke attempted to end 2005 on a positive note in Christmas week by releasing two very attractive publications at a luncheon put on for key players in the farming sector and the media. The publications were the Annual Report for 2004-2005 and the Farmers Calendar for 2006. There was good reason for his enthusiasm as they are excellent publications. He followed this with an overview of the performance of the sector highlighting the successes and failures, while noting the challenges and obstacles.
It was quite an impressive presentation that left the journalists with very few questions, and Mr. Clarke in a jovial mood that should have taken him through the next 12 days of Christmas or at least, to the end of the year. It almost worked. But then the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had to go and seize that shipment of processed tinned ackees from one of Jamaica's better-known agro-processors because it contained very high levels of hypoglycin.
Of course this is not the Minister of Agriculture's direct responsibility. It involves the Ministry of Commerce and Technology and its regulatory agency, the Jamaica Bureau of Standards, as well as the Jamaica Exporters Association (JEA). Perhaps the Ministry of Foreign Trade will also share some of the embarrassment.
But ackee as an agricultural produce is one of Mr. Clarke's pride and joy. It was under his watch in 2000 that the United States finally lifted the 28-year-old ban on imports of tinned ackees, and he has been encouraging and driving the expansion of ackee production as he sees it as the crop of the future. Indeed, ackees accounted for more than 60 per cent of the trees planted under his Tree Crops Project before that project came to a standstill for lack of funds. His pre-Christmas joviality must have been badly affected by the news of the seizure of the shipment, because he knows that the cause can be traced back to the failure of his ministry; the failure to produce the ackees in sufficient volumes to meet the needs of the processors.
LONG HARD BATTLE
When the ban on ackee imports into the U.S. was lifted in 2000, it was not an event that came upon us suddenly or stealthily like a thief in the night. It was the result of a long hard battle by the said Ministry of Agriculture, the Scientific Research Council, the Jamaica Bureau of Standards and the JEA. The battle involved the development of a protocol that would satisfy the USFDA that hypoglycin, a naturally occurring chemical in unripe ackee pods, would not be found in tins of processed ackees. Processors to be accredited would, therefore, have to bring their facilities up to international standards (Hazard Analysis at Critical Point).
At the time of the lifting of the ban only four local plants had been accredited. Since then another eight plants have achieved the standard, thus increasing threefold or more the demand for the raw material. But the ackee orchards which should have been in place in anticipation of the ban's removal are only just being established.
This is not to exonerate the processor who obviously, whether through negligence or greed, processed and shipped ackees which were not allowed to reach the acceptable level of maturity. It is difficult to conceive how negligence could be the cause of such a major slip-up, especially when there were hints for some time before that such a practice was taking place. So it all comes down to greed - which is not any different from the killing of the goose for the golden eggs.
The Bureau of Standards cannot escape blame either for failing to detect such breaches of the protocol. Those measures announced to come into effect this month amount to closing the gate after the horse has long gone.
Hugh Martin is a communication consultant and farm broadcaster; humar@cwjamaica.com.
