Eve-Vasion - helping Jamaican consumers evade high prices

Eve, Jamaica's first family of fine foods, has embarked on a drive to help Jamaicans evade high food prices in these difficult times. The initiative, dubbed Eve-Vasion, was fittingly launched at the start of the annual Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show last Saturday.

Eve-Vasion, which will run for four months initially, until the end of November, will see consumers benefiting from significant reductions in prices on selected items from the Eve brand. These include tomato ketchup, white cane vinegar, green peas, browning, hot pepper sauce, sardines in soy oil, corned beef, butter beans and mixed vegetables. The items, which were on sale at Jamaica's premier agricultural show, attracted much attention and had patrons looking twice in order to verify whether the low prices were for real.

The Eve-Vasion special at the show, was a Mega Value Deal. This saw patrons getting a chance to win one of four prizes when they purchased items valued at $500 or more, but must be inclusive of sardines, corned beef, mackerel or sausages. The prizes included blenders, toasters, electric kettles, T-shirts, caps and phonecards.

On display for sampling were some of the Mega Value meals being promoted by the brand. Some of the favourites were the sardine pastarami, Eve Hol' Dem Joe and the slam-dunk mackerel seasoned rice. These are all one-pot meals which were accompanied by recipes for patrons.

Brand manager for Eve, Wendy Wallace, pointed out that the Denbigh Show was chosen to launch Eve-Vasion as there is a natural connection between the brand, its products and the offerings, especially ground provisions, on show at Denbigh.

In support of Jamaica's agricultural sector, Eve has established a partnership with local farmers, giving them an opportunity to display and sell their produce at the show. It also represented a sponsorship which saw Eve providing booths and stalls for the farmers at a prime location, near the entrance to the Denbigh grounds and at no cost to the farmers.

High praise

Garth and Verona Blake, a husband-and-wife farming team who benefited from the Eve sponsorship, had high praises for the company. The couple, who are from Lowe River in south Trelawny and have been farming for 30 years, said if it wasn't for the sponsorship, they wouldn't have had the opportunity to display and sell their produce at the agricultural show. According to them, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority and the Jamaica Agricultural Society were responsible for selecting them to benefit from Eve's sponsorship, and they had high praises for them as well.