Agri minister calls for increased use of local ingredients in manufacturing

Hon Audley Shaw (centre), Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, discusses the importance of the local value chain development to Jamaica’s economy with (from left) Ricardo Nuncio, Managing Director of Red Stripe, and Noel daCosta, Chairman, Desnoes & Geddes Foundation, at Mona Visitors’ Lodge in St. Andrew on November 21, 2018. The occasion was Red Stripe’s Knowledge Forum, which was organised under the theme ‘Beyond Talk: The Commercialization of the Cassava Value Chain.

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Audley Shaw, is calling on manufacturers to include more local ingredients in the manufacturing of their products.
He was speaking at a Knowledge Forum organised by Red Stripe under the theme ‘Beyond Talk: The Commercialization of the Cassava Value ‘, held at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge, UWI, Mona, on November 21, 2018.

“Brew ideas like Red Stripe,” Minister Shaw stated as he commended the company on its innovation and enterprise in the use of cassava in the brewing of its beer.
“Our country’s prospects for developing agriculture and agri-business lie in producing food in which we have a distinct and competitive advantage as well as pursuing product diversification through new value-added food products,” stated Minister Shaw.
Noting that two of the three varieties of cassava grown in Jamaica are indigenous, the minister said that cassava flour could be turned into an industrial product and posited that between cassava and breadfruit the country could become self-sufficient in the production of our own flour.
For his part, Managing Director of Red Stripe, Ricardo Nuncio, expressed appreciation to the Ministry for its tremendous support to its Grow Jamaica project with the provision of land and research of varieties.
Red Stripe currently operates four farms on 2,700 acres of land and processes 100 root tonnes of cassava daily.

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