Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, addresses an audience at the ceremonial signing of the Local Umbrella Agreement for Tripartite Value Chain Financing for the Spices Sector at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew on Thursday, November 21.
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, said significant income generating potential exist in Jamaica’s spices sector.
Minister Green, speaking during the ceremonial signing of the Local Umbrella Agreement for Tripartite Value Chain Financing for the Spices Sector at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew on Thursday, November 21, outlined that opportunities exist for Jamaica to increase its market share of ginger, turmeric, and pimento.
“The United States imported over 112,000 tonnes of ginger, spending US $165 million. 57% of that came from a very far shore market in China, the other came from a very far market in Peru, 24%. Unfortunately, we don’t see Jamaica really registered significantly on that scale,” he said referencing import figures to the United States in 2023.
“Pimento, over US $11 million. Mexico, 29%; Guatemala, 29%; Jamaica, 14%. Significant opportunities to increase our share. Turmeric, $53 million. 68% comes from India; 22% from Jamaica. Again, significant opportunities for us to make tremendous resources through our spices,” he added.
The agriculture minister noted that the Ministry is actively working to drive the development of Jamaica’s spices sector to meet demand and credits the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress Jamaica Spices
(JaSPICE) Project as a mechanism that supports this goal, adding that the project “directly aligns with every single element of the strategic direction of the Ministry.”
Minister Green noted that the JaSPICE project is currently ongoing and has led to improvements on 90 acres of ginger, 127 acres of turmeric, and 15 acres of pimento with clean planting material. This, he said, is expected to produce increased yields.
However, Minister Green underscored that despite the positive outcomes of the project, it will all be “in vain” unless farmers and other agricultural stakeholders can gain access to financing.
He stated that farmers at all levels have faced challenges in accessing capital to expand their agricultural enterprises, which he identified as an impediment to growth.
“One of the reasons why we move so slowly in the transformation of agriculture, is because most of the people driving the transformation are private farmers [who] have to depend on their own resources to lead that transformation and when you do that it, in any industry, it takes extremely long,” Green noted.
The agriculture minister emphasized that collaboration is critical to addressing access to financing.
“Part of our Job has to be to work together to free up capital for our farmers, for our processors, for those involved in agriculture,” Green said.
The JaSPICE project is a multimillion-dollar initiative being executed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture/ACDI VOCA in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, along with other key Jamaican spice sector agencies. The aim of the project is to revitalize Jamaica’s spice sector over the next five years.
The project is expected to contribute to a 50% increase in high-quality ginger, turmeric, and pimento. It will strengthen the capacity of 7,500 agricultural market system actors, including women, youth, and other marginalized groups, while also improving and expanding trade in ginger, turmeric, and pimento products.
It is projected that this initiative will facilitate over $20.75 million in annual sales, of which $14 million will come from annual export sales. Ultimately, the project
aims to create a more diversified, inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient spice sector.
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