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Hemp investor has high hopes for Trelawny farm

Published:Wednesday | December 18, 2019 | 12:13 AMLeon Jackson/Gleaner Writer
Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw (second right) participates in the groundbreaking for Organic Growth Holdings Incorporated’s (OGH) medicinal hemp farm at Swanswick in Trelawny. From left are Mitchel Yeckes, managing director of OGH; Robert Weinstein, co-founder and president of OGH; and Shawn Rogers, vice-president, OGH.
Photo by Christopher Thomas
Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw (second right) participates in the groundbreaking for Organic Growth Holdings Incorporated’s (OGH) medicinal hemp farm at Swanswick in Trelawny. From left are Mitchel Yeckes, managing director of OGH; Robert Weinstein, co-founder and president of OGH; and Shawn Rogers, vice-president, OGH.

WESTERN BUREAU:

Mitchel Yeckes, the managing director of Organic Growth Holdings (OGH), the latest addition to the nation’s expanding cannabis industry, says his company will be investing US$4 million in his project.

The company has a lease for 635 acres of land, said Yeckes, shortly after ground was broken for his medicinal hemp farm on former sugar cane lands at Swanswick in Trelawny.

“It will produce a range of cannabidiol products, including oils right here in Jamaica. It will be a significant contribution to the agriculture and agro-processing sector,” added Yeckes.

Other crops

The investor said that the farmlands will also be used for the cultivation of crops such as okra, as well as for livestock production.

Yeckes is upbeat about job prospects for residents of Clark’s Town, Duncans, and Jackson Town.

“We have provided training and employment for 30 people so far. This number is expected to double within a couple of weeks as our diversification of crops comes on stream.”

The total acreage leased will be fully utilised. OGH will be a provider of sustainable employment to the local communities,” added the investor.

While Yeckes is quite enthusiastic about the future of his hemp farm, businessman Delroy Anderson, a sugar cane farmer in that section of Trelawny, is not impressed that focus is being diverted from the traditional crop.

“Over 1,000 people were employed in various capacities through sugar cane. What is happening here at Swanswick is not even a dent to appease the frustration of those who are now unemployed with the demise of sugar,” said Anderson.