Ackee earns US$15m despite ban
published: Thursday | August 10, 2006

Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Spanish Town, St. Catherine:

Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Roger Clarke, says the country has earned about US$15 million from ackee exports, despite the ban on ackees to the United States.

The Minister, who was speaking at the Linstead ackee festival in St. Catherine last Tuesday, said that this amount represented 75 per cent of the export earnings from ackee.

We should capitalise

"I think ackee has great potential and should be treated with the respect it deserves. Moreover, it is easy to maintain and the demand is great, we should capitalise as a nation," Mr. Clarke said.

He pointed out that ackee has moved from being the backyard tree crop to having the potential of being the top agricultural export product. As a result, he said the ministry was moving to plant more than 15 hundred acres of ackee.