Shelly-Ann Thompson, Staff Reporter

One hundred-year-old farmer Hemsley Johnson was presented with a special award for his many years in the sector during the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show which ended yesterday in Clarendon.

DENBIGH, Clarendon:

The Government will this week order its first shipment of fertiliser to be imported, Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced on the closing day of the 56th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show in Clarendon, yesterday.

Golding has instructed the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce and the agriculture ministry to spearhead the importation of some 25,000 tonnes of seven of the popular grades of the farming input.

"I say to farmers, be not discouraged, help is on the way," Golding proclaimed, adding that distribution of the first batch should start in another 60 days. He also said the commerce minister, Karl Samuda, has been instructed to restore the operation of the Jamaica Commodities Trading Company to handle the shipment of fertilisers.

First order

After Golding's announcement, Dr Christopher Tufton, agriculture minister, told The Gleaner that the first order of 8,000 tonnes, to be made this week, will arrive by next month-end.

The remainder is to arrive periodically until December, Tufton said.

He said the initial 8,000 tonnes of fertiliser would cost some $300 million.

The Government has decided to import fertilisers because the price of the commodity has more than doubled since January.

Responding to Golding's announcement, John Allen, managing director of Newport Fersan, the island's current sole manufacturer of inorganic fertiliser, said if the Government became a competitor, the company would have to revisit and re-examine its more than $1 billion investment in Jamaica.

Allen said Newport Fersan would not pull out of Jamaica, but noted that 25,000 tonnes of fertiliser represented more than 50 per cent of the commodity currently used annually. As such, he argued, operations such as employment and plant expansion would need to be restructured.

Plant operations

Allen said some 48,000 tonnes of fertiliser are used by farmers yearly and that Newport-Fersan currently has plans of investing $500 million to expand its plant operations. That plan, he said, would need re-consideration if the Government imports are materialised.

"We need to operate economically," Allen said.

The three-day Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial ended on Sunday with the organisers reporting a 50 per cent jump in turn out on the first day of the event in comparison to previous years.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com