JAMAICA: AGRICULTURE MINISTER ADDRESSES FOOD SECURITY AND

UNCLAS KINGSTON 000450

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D COPY - SANTO DOMINGO ADDED

DEPARTMENT PASS EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE FOR INFO
STATE FOR WHA/CAR (JTILGHMAN) (VDEPIRRO)
STATE FOR EEB/TPP/ABT/ATP (JANET SPECK)
USDA/FAS FOR (CLAY HAMILTON) (JAMES T. DAVIS)
USDA/FAS FOR FAA AREA OFFICER (JBAILEY)

SANTO DOMINGO FOR FCS AND FAS
TREASURY FOR SARA GRAY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR SENV ECON ETRD SOCI PREL EAID ENRG JM
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: AGRICULTURE MINISTER ADDRESSES FOOD SECURITY AND
U.S. PORK IMPORTS

REF: A. 07 KINGSTON 1684


B. KINGSTON 366

C. KINGSTON 354

D. KINGSTON 111

SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) Ambassador met with Minister of Agriculture Dr. Christopher
Tufton on May 19 to discuss Jamaica's continuing priorities in light
of the current food security issues and to advocate measures to
liberalize pork trade with the United States. Tufton said he would
consider sending two veterinary officials to visit a U.S. pork
process plant to assess the production, surveillance and veterinary
certification process; a step required to eventually reopen the
Jamaican market to U.S. pork products. Tufton said his three
priorities were to:
a) boost local agriculture production levels in the short-term;
b) build capacity on the island by upgrading the Bodles Agriculture
Research facility and;
c) modernize his Ministry to be able to more effectively help end
users in the agriculture sector.
Tufton expressed concern that high oil prices have hurt Jamaica's
agriculture industry, raising transportation costs and making
agriculture inputs such as fertilizer more expensive. End Summary

Expanding Local Production
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2. (SBU) Tufton said the banana and coffee sector is starting to
"bounce back" from the damage caused by Hurricane Dean in 2007. He
said the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) is working with the World Bank
to conduct a study on a "pyramid style insurance model" that would
deal with risk of hurricanes and other natural disasters. He said
he hopes this project eventually will be funded by the
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He emphasized that his
short-term focus will be on boosting local production levels,
including short-term incentives for production of alternative
starches, in response to the current food crises in Jamaica. He is
working with Jamaica Broilers and Mussons (Jamaica's largest rice
importer) to invest in more rice production. Tufton said Jamaica
consumes 100,000 tons of rice per year, and he wants to be able to
supply 20-25 percent of local consumption.

U.S. Pork Imports
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3. (SBU) Regional U.S. agriculture attach Jamie Rothschild raised
the issue of reopening the Jamaican market to U.S. pork products.
COMMENT: The USG through the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) has
been trying to open the Jamaican market to U.S. pork products for
the past few years. The initial ban was related to pseudorabies/
Ajueszky's (AD) disease in the U.S., which was eradicated in
commercial herds in late 2004. Pork products are allowed in from
Canada, the USG would like to give U.S. pork producers the same
market opportunity and level the playing field for North American
pork products (See SEPTEL from FAS Santo Domingo). It appears the
next step is for Tufton to authorize two Jamaican veterinary
officials to visit a U.S. pork processing operation to assess
production, surveillance, monitoring, and the veterinary
certification process. FAS has offered to pay the travel costs for
the two veterinary officials to the U.S. Rothschild pointed out to
Tufton that many of the cuts of meat that were needed in Jamaica's
hotels could be sourced from the U.S. market. Tufton said he would
look at the idea of sending the two veterinary officials to the U.S.
Once the veterinary officials provide their findings to the
Ministry of Agriculture Post will update accordingly.

Sensitive to Local Capacity to Compete
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4. (SBU) In light of opening itself to more liberalized trade,
Tufton said his country faces the challenge of whether the local
producers have the capacity to compete: "we have to be sensitive to
the realities." He explained, "the Jamaican dairy sector liberalized
years ago and 500 farmers were wiped out." He said Jamaicans bought
milk from the European Union (EU),but now as demand and prices have
climbed Jamaica is experiencing milk shortages and has lost most of
its local suppliers. Tufton lamented, "we are now trying to rebuild
our local dairy sector." Tufton added that "the GOJ has to be sharp


on its approach to policy--so our policy has to look inward, to give
our own farmers a level playing field." Tufton compared his
situation to the U.S., which is focusing on corn-based ethanol
production. Tufton added, "the U.S. has security reasons for not
wanting to rely on foreign oil, that is why they are focusing on
using corn based ethanol, this is the U.S. protecting its own
internal interests and is understandable." But, the decision can
create impacts in other countries such as higher costs for feed
corn," he added.

Oil and Fertilizer
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5. (SBU) Tufton complained that rising oil prices continue to raise
costs of agriculture production. He said the price of inputs such
as fertilizer had climbed, making it more difficult to increase
production. The GOJ had been providing a subsidy on fertilizer, but
this had ended; it now sought reduced prices of fertilizer from
Venezuela. He said many of the small farmers use potash, and he is
hoping to secure some assistance from Canada for this. According to
Tufton, Canada has offered USD 5 million in agriculture assistance,
some of these funds will be used to help fisheries and to address
issues such as over fishing and dynamite fishing.

Greenhouses Remain A Focus
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6. (SBU) Tufton reiterated his desire to build greenhouse "clusters"
co-located with agribusiness packaging and marketing facilities to
transform the agriculture sector and to supply the local tourist
hotels. He said greenhouses are good for five or six key crops like
tomatoes, but other traditional crops such as yams, watermelons, and
cantaloupes do not need greenhouses. Tufton said he still wants to
use his concept of clusters to help farmers find a market for these
traditional crops. He said his first greenhouse cluster will be
managed by agri-business firm GraceKennedy in the parish of St.
Catherine. He said that Grace Kennedy also is providing the
services of a marketing person to assist the Ministry in agriculture
marketing. Tufton also said he has contracted to have a U.S.
agriculture marketing expert come to Jamaica in June to work in his
Ministry for the next year. COMMENT: A representative from the
Spanish Embassy told Econoff that Spain is providing USD 7.8 million
to help implement the greenhouses, but the project is moving slowly
because of political wrangling over where the greenhouses would be
located on the island. End Comment.

JOHNSON