THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on July 7 in the years identified: 1985:opened A factory is to be

in the Kingston Free Zone to buy papayas as its main item. Also, it will buy mangoes, bananas and pineapples. Anthony Johnson, minister of state for agriculture, announces this in stating that Jamaica can earn an additional US$500 million from the export of 10 agricultural products to make up for the loss of US$300 million from bauxite earnings over the last three years. He is outlining the prospects for expanding nontraditional exports at the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporationsponsored national retreat on the Structural Adjustment Programme at Wyndham Hotel, New Kingston.

1987:A 230-room hotel complex in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, to cost over $75 million is announced. Paul Chen-Young, chairman of Ciboney Hotel Developers Limited, which is behind the enterprise, tells attendees at a luncheon at the Terra Nova Hotel that it is the first time that an investment of that magnitude, is initiated entirely by the private sector. It is the largest private placement ever undertaken in Jamaica, and it is the largest Jamaican private-sector development in tourism since the early 1970s. 1990:buying Consumers are not

as much bread as they normally do, it is found during a tour of supermarkets in the Corporate Area. According to Icelyne Lee, proprietor of Lee’s Food Fair on Red Hills Road, because of the increase in the price of bread, her sales had fallen by at least 15 per cent. She says the loaves are moving slowly from the shelf but she will not worry about it affecting her revenue as she knew it was because they had boycotted the item.