The head of the United States firm that manufactures the patties imported to the island has reacted with disappointment to news that the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA) is angry that the product is available on local supermarket shelves.

"I want to say to the JMA that it shouldn't be one-sided, it should look at the broader picture and we should support each other," Vincent HoSang, president and CEO of Caribbean Food Delights, told The Gleaner yesterday.

"We have several bakeries in the United States making buns but HTB buns come from Jamaica and are sold cheaper here and we do not complain," HoSang argued.

Unfair

The veteran baker said it was unfair that his company was being singled out for attention when much of its raw material comes from Jamaica.

"We help the agricultural sector in Jamaica. Our patties include Scotch bonnet pepper, thyme, when it is available, and callaloo, which we also import from Jamaica. We also use jerk seasonings from Jamaica," said HoSang, a Jamaican who migrated to the United States 31 years ago.

According to HoSang, his company's patties are sold in the United Kingdom, The Virgin Islands, Cayman and other countries.

"We did not want to come to Jamaica, but we have a distributor, PriceSmart, that has a store in Jamaica and it takes our product throughout the Caribbean and we could not stop them from taking it to Jamaica," HoSang added.

"They said the product is doing so well in the Caribbean and South America so they decided to give it a shot in Jamaica and we could not stop them."

HoSang, who lived in Springfield, St James, before migrating, has remained a friend of Jamaica and in 2006 his company donated a medical bus valued at US$180,000.

Donated scholarships

He has also donated six full scholarships for students to attend the University of the West Indies, Mona, and money to Missionaries of the Poor for the construction of a chapel in Stony Hill, St Andrew.

HoSang's companies, Caribbean Food Delights and Royal Caribbean, are also major sponsors of Jamaican teams that travel to the annual Penn Relays in the United States.

On Wednesday, Omar Azan, president of the JMA, argued that the Government would have to put its foot down to prevent the importation of products such as patties.

"We are having problems with foreign exchange to buy raw materials to produce and employ Jamaicans but yet still we are finding US dollars to purchase imported patties," Azan said.

However, Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda was quick to point out that there was nothing the Government could do to stop the importation of the patties.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com