Tafara Smith, Focal Point for the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, while presenting the project status update on hot peppers in Jamaica at the Hand Over Ceremony themed ‘Improving the Phytosanitary, Food Safety and Market Access Opportunities and the Hot Pepper Value Chain Project’ at the Bureau of Standards on Monday, July 28, 2025.
Tafara Smith, Focal Point for the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, outlined that the project of making Jamaica’s hot pepper competitive was implemented with the main aim of improving the phytosanitary quality of peppers locally.
Smith said that given the reports of the Jamaican peppers being exported, especially the raw pepper products, the project was written with the mandate to reduce those phytosanitary inceptions due to poor phytosanitary conditions or improve the quality of the pepper and improve exports, as well as develop the capacity of local farmers.
“The aim is to address variability in the hot pepper value chain with a focus on phytosanitary food safety, clean sea production, and export constraints and focusing on the food agro-system,” she said.
This project also allowed several farmers to receive training to improve the output and quality of their projects. “Each component of the project was written with an aspect of capacity building built into it because we do believe that while we can help you now, strengthening and improving the capabilities of our farmers will lead to sustainable agricultural development, and so that was a main thing for us.
Source: Our Today
