THE MINISTRY of Agriculture and Fisheries is reporting success in its efforts to boost hot pepper production to support the agro processing sector.

According to the ministry, over the past year, hot pepper production has increased by approximately 400 per cent, allowing agro processors to secure their markets and build pepper mash inventories for up to three months.

At the same time, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr Christopher Tufton, is calling for entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity to use the locally produced raw material to expand in existing markets and penetrate new markets locally and overseas.

This, he says, is critical to ensure that the efforts of local farmers are encouraged and sustained, while creating needed economic opportunities for private enterprise and the country.

Minister satisfied

During a tour of Gray's Pepper in Westmoreland last Friday, Tufton expressed satisfaction with a specially designed programme by his ministry that saw 13 of 16 pepper nurseries being established involving private farmers who have been provided with seeds. Technical support is being provided by the Ministry's Bodles Station and the Caribbean Agricultural and Research Develop-ment Institute.

Each of the nurseries now has the capacity to supply 180,000 pepper seedlings to more than 250 farmers every eight weeks. Approximately 30 per cent of pepper seedlings are Scotch Bonnet varieties and 70 per cent West Indian Red varieties - the primary raw material for the hot pepper sauce market.

Tufton said each nursery currently has the capacity to provide 30 acres of hot pepper seedlings to farmers every eight weeks. Seedlings will mature in three months and each acre of pepper will be able to produce up to 20,000 pounds of pepper.

"This is a good example of the linkages between primary producers and agro processors. Processed Jamaican-grown hot peppers represent a tremendous opportunity in the international market and the ministry's objective is to ensure that our farmers produce all the raw material needed to our agro processors and agro entrepreneurs," Tufton said.

For the largest hot pepper processor, Gray's Hot Pepper in Westmoreland, the initiative supported by good weather conditions has resulted in that company being able to secure all the pepper mash it needs this year.

Last year, the company was only able to source 200,000 pounds of hot peppers locally for processing.

But since the start of the year the company bought about 600,000 pounds of pepper from local farmers and is currently carrying a six-month inventory of pepper mash.

According to Tufton, by the middle of next year the Government will be working with private sector entities to establish the three other nurseries and three pepper mash facilities in Clarendon, St Mary and St Elizabeth to use the peppers being produced by farmers for processing into branded hot pepper sauce products.