Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter
MARTIN
WESTERN BUREAU:
LOCAL HOTEL and tourism interests say that while they provide a ready and highly-developed market for agricultural produce, farmers are not sufficiently prepared to capitalise on the lucrative opportunities that exist.
"The tourism sector needs reliable suppliers of agricultural produce that meet international standards," said Horace Peterkin, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and general manager of Sandals Montego Bay.
"We have taken steps, through our relationship with the Mafoota Farmers Cooperative in St. James, to acquire quality produce, but that only satisfies about 10 per cent of our total needs."
He was speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum on agriculture and tourism at the newspaper's Montego Bay offices yesterday.
While acknowledging that there was not a general thrust to have the initiative adopted by other properties, Mr. Peterkin disclosed that Sunset Beach Hotel and Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort in Montego Bay have followed their example.
LIMITED ACCESS
Trevor Martin, regional zonal director in the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), in addressing the forum, said that farmers were unable to tap into the tourist market because of limited access to land, irrigation, capital and improper marketing practices, among other factors.
"Market is not the problem ... to have this linkage we have to think about infusing quite a bit of capital into the operations of the small farmer, so that he is in a position to meet the demands and the conditionalities of the tourism sector," Mr. Martin
contended.
"Collectively there are billions of dollars out there, so we do not have to look for the market. But there are certain things that we have to do to access the market," he said. "A farmer, by his own feelings, says he knows a place that will take his produce. He plants and then seeks the market after, that is not good enough."
