Mount Olivet Boys’ Home embarking on herbal teas project
THE MOUNT Olivet Boys’ Home is poised to establish a herb farm, following the donation of plants and a proposal for purchase of the harvest by local tea manufacturer Perishables Jamaica Limited (PJL).
“We’re planting the seed and will watch it grow, and reap and create a good herb farm that we can build a long-term business relationship from. We do this on an ongoing basis across Jamaica,” PJL managing director Norman Wright said.
Wright, who handed over rosemary and peppermint plants to the Home recently, was upbeat about the prospects of the project and said that the company buys herbs from farmers, and “based on our knowledge of the environment here at Mount Olivet, they will prosper here”.
He was speaking at the Home’s annual sports day hosted in collaboration with the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) at the facility in Walderston, Manchester, earlier this month.
Wright expressed delight in being invited by the JIS to share in the day’s activities, saying, “I thought, what better way to help the youngsters than to bring them something they can plant and reap”.
PJL was established in 1981, and the company’s mission is to develop agricultural products and by-products.
Explaining his background in the field, Wright pointed to his many years of experience working with herbs and his accompanying exploits in academia.
“It’s been in the family for a long time, and so I was able to learn all of what I know as I grew up in it. Recently, I completed my master’s degree in complementary and alternative medicine from the University of Technology, and that has given me some authentication of what I knew as a layman,” the businessman stated.
Speaking about the products and business, Wright underscored the focus on producing local products of the highest quality.
“At PJL, we use 97 per cent Jamaican products, and we have a strict quality policy that helps to sell our products. It sells itself because we don’t have the money to do advertising and put up billboards. But when people taste our products, they say they are good. The Bureau of Standards Jamaica and the Scientific Research Council are critical stakeholders in our business,” he indicated.