Letter of the Day | Pimento farmers are being short-changed
Published:Friday | September 27, 2024 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
A recent report in the media mentioned the decline in the production of pimento in Jamaica. This has not come as a surprise to me, as I am one of those pimento growers who have ceased reaping pimento and no longer plant the trees. This is because of the low price which the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA), loosely referred to as the ‘Pimento Board’, pays for dry pimento.
Up to last year the JACRA was offering farmers $450 per pound for dried pimento. This price is not viable and is, at best, oppressive to pimento growers. These growers have to pay someone to ‘break’ the pimento, that is, clip the branches of pimento from the tree and thereafter pay persons to “pick the pimento”, that is to say, separate the berries from the branches and the leaves. After this, the process of drying the pimento is usually done on a flat concrete surface called barbecue and after all of this the pimento is bagged for sale – only to be offered $450 per pound.
I checked the price for which Jamaican pimento wholegrain/ungrounded pimento allspice is being sold in London and I note that it is being sold for £1.99 per 70-gramme pack. Seventy gramme is two and a half ounces. So, my maths is telling me that the pimento from Jamaica is being sold in England for around J$3,500 per pound.
The question that the JACRA needs to answer is: who is reaping the value added between $450 per pound given to the farmers and J$3,500 per pound that it is sold for?
Floyd Green, minister of agriculture, needs to get a hold of JACRA and ensure that the entity is acting in the best interest of Jamaica and, in particular, of pimento farmers. The minister needs to accept that if JACRA continues to pay such a low price for pimento more and more farmers will cease growing and reaping pimento, which is going to result in the shortage of the spice.
If this trend continues, in the long or not too long term, Jamaica will have to import pimento.
The agriculture minister should take a serious look not only at the pimento industry but generally at the operation of JACRA, given its monopoly over the export of a number of agricultural produce, and see whether they are acting in the best interest of the farmers and Jamaica.
LINTON GORDON
Ocho Rios, St. Ann