3 months ago
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Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness is urging hotel operators to negotiate long-term contracts with farmers who supply them with food produce, saying it would give the farmers security to invest in their operations.
“We have to get our hotels to engage our farmers with long-term supply contracts. We have to create a commercial ecosystem that supports long-term investment for our farmers that gives them the security of investment and return, so that they can invest in increasing output,” Holness said as he addressed the opening of the Caribbean Poultry Association’s technical symposium and exhibition in New Kingston on Tuesday.
Such contracts are already a feature of the poultry industry, which Holness said represented the best example of sustainable agriculture in Jamaica.
“If you are going to look at it from a commercial standpoint, you need the endurance of massive capital investment that will mitigate against the cyclical nature of agriculture. And the only way to do that is to have controlled farming; and to have controlled farming, you need to have large investments,” he said.
Holness drew contrasts to the farmers of tomatoes and other cash crops that had no sustainability “because, largely, there is no aggregator in those agricultural endeavours”.
“It is clear that the poultry industry leads the way and it’s a good model for us to study and learn from,” he said.
The Caribbean Poultry Association was founded in Jamaica 25 years ago and the symposium, now in its eighth staging, brought together more than 200 delegates from the Caribbean, the United States and other countries.
English (US) ·