Wed | Oct 15, 2025

Ground broken for Manchester cold storage facility to benefit 1,500 farmers

Published:Friday | February 21, 2025 | 7:43 PM
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green (fourth left), breaks ground for the establishment of a cold storage facility at the Content Greenhouse Cluster in Kirkvine, Manchester, on February 20, 2025. He is joined by (from left) Contractor
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green (fourth left), breaks ground for the establishment of a cold storage facility at the Content Greenhouse Cluster in Kirkvine, Manchester, on February 20, 2025. He is joined by (from left) Contractor, James Samson; Senior Environmental Specialist/Programme Leader, World Bank, John Bryant Collier; Councillor-Caretaker for the Knockpatrick Division, Adeka Miller; Managing Director, Jamaica Social Investment Fund, Omar Sweeney; Mayor of Mandeville, Donovan Mitchell; Custos of the parish, Garfield Green; and Chief Executive Officer, Agro-Investment Corporation, Vivion Scully.

Ground has been broken for a $124-million cold storage facility at the greenhouse cluster in Content, Kirkvine, Manchester, which is expected to benefit more than 1,500 farmers and producers.

The initiative is being implemented by the Government of Jamaica through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) under its Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) II.

“Two 40-foot containers will be retrofitted to provide 135 cubic metres of cold storage capacity. Additionally, we will have another 40-foot container retrofitted to provide 67 cubic metres of dry storage capacity. We are doing it for all the different types of produce that we have in this area,” said Floyd Green, minister of agriculture, fisheries and mining, at the ceremony on Thursday.

The facility will also include a processing area for weighing, washing, sorting, and grading produce. A photovoltaic solar system will be installed to meet energy needs.

“We will also be covering the cold storage so the roof structure will be utilised for rainwater harvesting. We will further bolster the capacity of this Content Cluster by providing them with a storage tank to hold an additional 4,700 gallons of water,” Green added.

Production at the Content Greenhouse Cluster began in 2018, yielding 45,000 pounds of produce from 20 greenhouses. Farmers in the area cultivate bell peppers, grape and cherry tomatoes, purple cabbage, and broccoli.

Managing Director of JSIF, Omar Sweeney, highlighted the agency’s long-standing support for the Content Cluster, dating back to 2010 under the REDI-I initiative, which stemmed from a Government of Jamaica and World Bank agreement.

“That agreement was to improve the livelihoods of people. The Bank offers more than money; it offers technical expertise such as resources for infrastructure such as this. Since 2020, there has been REDI-II, which focuses on many of the same things REDI-I did, but to advance the approach,” he said.

Sweeney noted that the cold storage facility is expected to enhance the agricultural supply chain, manage surplus, and improve resilience in the sector.

Lead farmer at Content Greenhouse Cluster, Earl Williams, welcomed the development, stating that farmers will soon have a centralised hub to store produce and reduce post-harvest losses. He noted that the facility has the capacity to store more than 160,000 pounds of produce over eight months.

The Kirkvine cold storage facility aims to reduce post-harvest losses, ensure consistent food supply, and enhance Jamaica’s agricultural resilience. The initiative is being implemented in partnership with the Agro-Investment Corporation.

- JIS News

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