Game changers in the sorrel industry (Pt 1)
“I just couldn’t believe it. I went online to check if there was anything like it in the world and came up with nothing, so I got excited because I realised that this was going to have an impact on the whole industry. And it kind of scared me, because this was bigger than anything I could imagine. So I decided that we needed real help; we needed the country to back us on this.”
ON THURSDAY night, May 25, 2017, the lawns of Devon House were abuzz with ac tivity as restaurateurs, chefs, producers and foodies gathered to celebrate the crème de la crème of Jamaica’s food industry at the 19th annual Jamaica Observer Food Awards.
Allison and Oral Turner, principals of Turner Innovations Limited – nominated in the Best Food Product category for their Turner’s Choice dried and candied sorrel products – were late to arrive as they had spent the majority of the day in the kitchen. They had been preparing dishes to offer as samples at their booth: sorrel-infused rice, sorrel muffins, and a peppery, sweet and tangy sorrel sauce over Copperwood smoked pork.
On the way to the event, Allison fielded two frantic phone calls from the organisers asking where they were, which put her antennas up.
Could it be...? Surely not, she thought, as Turner’s Choice is a baby in the industry, up against some well-known, longestablished brands. But as soon as they arrived, they were practically spirited from the VIP car park to the side of the stage. Surely not, Allison thought again. And then their names were called as one of two winners in the Best Food Product category. “I just started to shake. I couldn’t believe it,” Allison recalled. “Just the endorsement alone, to know that Jamaicans will look at us as the best product – not just in St Elizabeth or Kingston, but Jamaica – it’s going to give us the boost that we are really looking for to promote our product, because we know it’s the best that’s out there right now.”
THE TURNER INNOVATIONS STORY
ORAL AND Allison Turner have practically become stars in the local agro-processing industry over the past three years. The couple, who have been married for more than 10 years and are serial entrepreneurs, live and work in Comma Pen, St Elizabeth.
Oral, born and raised in St Elizabeth, is a welder by trade. He comes from a background of family farming, runs a farm supplies store and has a knack for reverse engineering.
Allison, born and raised in the United Kingdom to a Trinidadian mother and a Jamaican father, came here in 2000 to find her roots. She also found love, and an outlet for her skills in graphic design, administration and marketing.
One day in 2008, one of Oral’s customers came into the store, lamenting the fact that he was going to have to abandon four acres of sorrel as it would cost so much to reap that the profit would be negligible.
Separating the red calyxes (flesh) from the seed bud is the most labour-intensive – thus most expensive – aspect of reaping sorrel. Typically, farmers employ labourers to hand-strip the buds, or use a broken umbrella stick to push the seed up and through the base of the bud. The latter method is the most widely used, but as one can imagine, it is very time-consuming, which drives up harvesting costs.
It was a dark situation for the farmer, but it suddenly sparked a bright idea for Oral. He started bringing sorrel home, and began tinkering with various household items and appliances, trying to find a way to cut the cost of harvesting by automating the process of separating the flesh from the seeds.
Allison, usually the optimist, didn’t initially see what he saw in his mind’s eye, and begged him to leave it alone – especially as her kitchen items, broomsticks and even furniture legs were going missing or being maimed in the process of Oral’s experimentation.
It’s not every day someone invents a machine, and certainly not in Jamaica, she cautioned. Besides, if such a machine were to be invented, surely it would have been done already.
Perhaps determined to prove his wife wrong, Oral persisted. He even ran a light out into the back garden, and spent many a night working outside.
SEEING THE POSSIBILITIES
THREE MONTHS later, he had done it. He had successfully created the first automated prototype of a sorrel harvesting machine.
“When I saw this machine, I thought there was still a little man in there plucking the sorrel with an umbrella stick,” Allison laughed.
“I just couldn’t believe it. I went online to check if there was anything like it in the world and came up with nothing, so I got excited because I realised that this was going to have an impact on the whole industry. And it kind of scared me, because this was bigger than anything I could imagine. So I decided that we needed real help; we needed the country to back us on this. But I didn’t believe Jamaica had any kind of facility for invention.”
In December 2010, the basic prototype was introduced to the then minister of agriculture, Roger Clarke. It was very rough, but he saw the possibilities and led the way for the Turners by introducing them to the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ).
In the meantime, Allison sought business training and enrolled at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship – Caribbean in 2011.
Later that year, the DBJ came on board, providing J$3 million in grant funding that enabled the Turners to produce a more professional prototype of the machine and seek a United States patent. The Sorrel Harvesting Machine was granted a US patent in December 2016, after five years of applying. International interest in the machine has been strong since 2010, when the Turners impulsively put up a website without a finished product, and that has only grown as they have steadily racked up local awards and accolades, the Observer Food Award being the most recent. There are about 22 countries that commercially produce sorrel around the world. In terms of production volume, China and Thailand are the market leaders. Other major producers include Mexico, Ghana, India and Sudan. Jamaica is actually among the smallest producers and suppliers. The Turners regularly field calls and emails from farmers in other countries that want access to the Sorrel Harvesting Machine. They are excited about the possibilities of going global, but for now, the plan is to start local, and they will begin by licensing with a major local manufacturer. “The world is our oyster, and we have many options to take the model overseas if we choose,” Allison said.
THE FUNDING CONUNDRUM
BEING SERIAL entrepreneurs, the Turners first sought to remain independent with their new invention.
“We were working on it during the day and doing karaoke seven nights a week for a living. We just believed that we were going to have to do this ourselves. It’s only when we realised that we had to get the patent made non-provisional and we were going to need help that we started reaching out,” Allison explained.
They were excited about the possibilities, Allison having done her research, but they ended up walking into a brick wall.
“We did the Denbigh Agricultural Show that first year and they told us this isn’t going anywhere, leave it alone. We were deflated, but we were determined to make it happen, to prove them wrong,” she recalled.
The banks and financial institutions were not interested, and the couple bounced around for a year, hearing nothing but ‘no’, even after some representatives got their hopes up by visiting them to check out the machine.
“It was a horrible experience. They just didn’t see the vision,” she said.
FIRSTANGELSJA TO THE RESCUE
That’s when Allison sought help from the late Roger Clarke, and got connected with the DBJ. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 2014, the DBJ had them pitch the business idea to the FirstAngelsJA network, and they found investors almost immediately.
“To be able to impact an industry as big as agriculture, which is vital to Jamaica, was very attractive to them. And we had already been backed by the DBJ, so the potential had already been recognised. Jamaica is known for agriculture. It’s a great area to invest in, especially with the impact of our invention,” Allison reasoned.
“Besides, how many times in your lifetime will you meet an inventor? Much less one from Jamaica?”