A vendor displays his fruits and vegetables. Across the Caribbean, hotels buy 42 per cent of the food consumed by their guests from local sources. - Photo by Rosemary Parkinson

John Myers Jr, Business Reporter

Sparked initially by the strategic decision of one top hotel chain, local farmers and traders are being served increasingly larger slices of the hotel market, whose food purchases range into billions of dollars annually to satisfy the appetites of more than 1.2 million visitors here.

Senator Norman Grant, president of the local farmers' association, the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), said the trade between the tourism and agricultural sectors is now worth $20 billion to $25 billion annually as the island's hotel sector sources more of its food supplies from domestic producers.

"There is an exciting partnership between agriculture and tourism. The two sectors have certainly been working very closely and that has intensified especially over the last four years," said Grant.

He said the local farming sector presently supplies up to 65 per cent of the demand for fresh produce and meats in the tourism sector, compared with "seven years ago when we were barely scraping to get anywhere between 20 and 25 per cent."

Survey findings

The figure quoted by Grant tracks the regional food market in the hospitality sector, according to the findings of a survey published September 2006.

Done by Global Tourism Inc. of Barbados on behalf of the Caribbean Hotel Association, the study found that while less than half of fresh produce used in the hotels were bought locally, vegetables, diary and meat enjoyed good markets accounting respectively for 74 per cent, 67 per cent and 63 per cent of those products consumed in the hotels.

Overall market penetration for local products was estimated at 42 per cent.

The hotels, on average, spent US$9.40 per day on fresh fish, and US$8.00 per day on other fresh meat.

The Sandals Resort International hotel chain, for example, purchases some $500 million of local produce annually, representing an estimated 80 per cent of their demand, making it the single largest purchaser of locally grown produce in the tourism sector.

At that level, Sandals represents 2.0 per cent of the total 'agri-tourism' market, and is about five-fold the amount it was spending locally several years ago.

"It simply does not make sense to import when you have better right here on our island," said hotelier Howard Spittle, general manager of Beaches Sandy Bay, at a weekend event in Negril for farmers, organised by the Sandals group.

Beaches is a Sandals brand, marketed at families.

"Tourism is the leading sector of our economy and in linking tourism with agriculture, we are promoting the growth of both sectors as well as a form of employment for the society," said Spittle.

It is perhaps that principle that guided the Gordon 'Butch' Stewart owned hotel group several years ago to partner with local farmers in St James and later a broader cross section of Jamaica to grow produce to standards set by the chain.

Sandals assists the farmers with planting material and technical assistance, and guarantees a market for their produce once quality standards are met.

The chain has linkages with farmers in the communities surrounding its Jamaican hotels which are located across the main resort centres of Montego Bay, Negril, and Ocho Rios and other areas of St. Ann, as well as parts of Portland, St. Mary and Westmoreland.

"Through our own on-property environmental management systems at Sandals and Beaches resorts, we are able to share with and teach sustainable agricultural practices and greenhouse technologies in our rural communities," said Spittle.

Grant predicts that the partnership between the two sectors will grow even further as more hotel rooms are being built and more foreigners book vacations here.

In fact, the JAS sees opportunity in the Spanish invasion, and is about to get more aggressive on negotiating business from them.

Led by Spanish-based hotel groups, increasingly larger properties are entering the market. The Spanish would have added 13 properties in 10 years from investments of US$550 million to US$600 million.

The Tourism Ministry projects that 15,288 new hotel rooms would have been added to the count by 2010.

"We see the huge expansion in the tourism sector, in terms of the construction of hotels, as a huge opportunity for the farmers," said the JAS president.

Inconsistency in volume

It's unclear how much the expanding Spanish hotel groups spend, but forerunner Riu Resorts tells The Financial Gleaner that its food expenses are split 70 per cent imports and 30 per cent domestic produce, an imbalance that its purchasing manager William Martin links to the inconsistency in volume of domestic food supply.

Martin, who handles procurement for the three Riu properties here, told The Financial Gleaner that he expects supplies to remain skewed toward foreign goods, saying oftentimes not enough local foods were available.

The Global Tourism survey alluded to that very issue.

"Two thirds of requirements are sourced locally in the areas of vegetables, meats and dairy, but less than one-fifth in the areas of fruit fish and eggs," the findings showed.

"There are supply chain and other factors operating that must be first understood before exploiting obvious opportunities for penetration of this sector."

Nevertheless, Grant said the farmers lobby was in discussions with Spanish Ambassador Jesus Silva, in its push for Spanish investors to tap the local farms for supplies.

"The sector is having dialogue with the Spanish Ambassador as to how we can, in a structured way, have a constant relationship, especially with the Spanish group of hotels, where we continue to supply agricultural produce coming from the local market," he said.

"We in the agricultural sector are committed to ensuring that we capitalise on this huge incentive as it relates to the investments that the hotels will bring in and we are insisting that as a condition o``f the investments in expanding the hotel rooms, the investors must commit to purchasing local agricultural produce ... once the quality of these goods meet the standards that are outlined."

john.myers@gleanerjm.com.