GORDON
DR. ANDRÉ GORDON announced last Wednesday that he would be stepping down as president of the Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA), for a 30-day period to focus on the crisis in the island's ackee export industry, with immediate effect.
Ackee processors are reporting massive losses amounting to $100 million due to a decision to test samples of all ackee shipments. These issues are related to the United States Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recall of 31 cases of canned ackees shipped from Jamaica to the United States in December 2005.
The rigid testing regime was introduced after it was reported that ackee was being exported to the U.S. market with unacceptably high levels of hypoglycin, a naturally occurring toxin.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Dr. Gordon stated in a press release that he would be going on a leave of absence to attend to his business, Technological Solutions Limited (TSL), which has been threatened by a series of events.
"During my leave of absence, I will be working along with the local food processing industry association, the Jamaica Agroprocessors Association (JAPA) at their request and that of the FDA to develop and implement a solution to the current problem," stated Dr. Gordon.
COLLABORATIVE STUDY
"This includes coordinating a collaborative study, involving the FDA, into the method being used to test hypoglycin as well as investigating the reasons behind the current high hypoglycin levels," he added. Dr. Gordon said other important questions about the industry would also be addressed by this series of studies.
However, he will not be going to Maryland where the FDA is located, to address these issues as was stated in a previous article carried in The Financial Gleaner.
Dr. Gordon said the FDA had full confidence in his company and the JEA to the extent that it had suggested that the local industry work collaboratively to solve the current problems. He reiterated that the integrity of the JEA and TSL had never been questioned by the FDA.
"Technological Solutions Limited and I have a long-standing collegial and working relationship with the FDA dating back to 1988. We have been working closely with them since then on helping companies meet the requirements to export ackees into that market and settling the method, to be used for testing hypoglycin," he stated explaining that TSL did not represent any regulatory body in Jamaica or the FDA.
