New markets and diversified farms keep business going in Westmoreland
Despite the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Westmoreland farmers are managing to overcome the loss sales through diversified farms and accessing new markets.
The operators of Source One Feeds and Agricultural Supplies, who have been doing business in the paris for over 28 years, are praising Westmoreland farmers for their marketing prowess.
“When you see farmers in other parishes on the news saying they had to dump their eggs, we didn’t have that problem here [in Westmoreland],” chief executive officer of Source One Feeds and Agricultural Supplies, Osmond Clarke, told the Business Observer. “Many of our egg farmers told us they started supplying the bakeries in the parish.”
Chief operating officer of Source One, Garth Clarke, reinforced this statement, adding that, “The bakeries did not close down and one bakery operater in the parish said that he has never sold so much bread since he has been in the business,” explaining that bread sales skyrocketed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of Source One’s regular customers Sheldon Williams, whose farm is located in Seaford Town, confirmed the benefits of diversified farms.
“The sales we would have made during the month of March we never made it, because the hotels were closed. So to prevent spoilage we had to sell to the local market,” he explained, “The local market, [however], doesn’t purchase the volume as quickly as the hotels will. Plus hotels pay higher rates for the pineappless. Because what we are earning now from the local market cannot sustain the farm. We have to depend on the pig sales to sustain the farm,” Williams, who has 1,500 pigs in house, said.
Osmond Clarke, however, explained that, “The effect [of COVID-19] on the pig industry was not as significant as on the chicken. I think because we [Jamaica] do a lot of export through companies like Grace Foods who has a flourishing export market.”
With 60 acres of pineapples in the field, Williams is hoping that the hotel industry will be reopened fully by January 2021 their next reaping period.