Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Jamaica Producers Group Limited's local snack business, which was nega-tively impacted by Hurricane Dean last year, is said to be fully back in operation.

The company's Annotto Bay factory in St Mary, which was forced to close temporarily because of the unavailability of bananas for its snack operation, went back into production four weeks ago, on April 17.

Steady supply

General Manager for Jamaica Producers Foods, David Martin, said the combination of the snack factories in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica was now allowing JP to more steadily supply the market.

"As far as snacks go, we are having a really good season," Martin told Wednesday Business, referring to the resumption of frying at the St Mary plant. "We are able to supply the market."

Immediately after Hurri-cane Dean struck last year August, most of the company's banana crop was destroyed.

Production at the St Mary factory ceased eight weeks later, as JP Foods was still able to harvest the felled bananas, which it used to continue the production of chips. Thereafter, the company started to rely on its snack factory in the Dominican Republic, to continue feeding snacks to Jamaica, with the overseas operation currently servicing 50 per cent of the local market.

That will change when the St Mary operation is back in full production.

JP normally exports about 85 per cent of its banana crop, but the company has been absent from that market since the storm.

No revenues

In fact, JP said in a stock market filing that its Jamaican snack business and bananas exports had earned no revenues for the group in the March quarter.

"When a hurricane strikes, the first thing to stop is exports and the last thing to go is domestic fresh bananas," Martin said.

It is now replanting its field, however, and is planning to begin exporting again by the third quarter. The other 15 per cent would go into snack production and supplies of ripe and green bananas on the local market.

Local market

Martin told Wednesday Business that JP is now using about two thirds of the crop for its snack business and is distributing the remaining one third into the local market.

"On a normal basis, factory frying has been twice as much as the company selling ripe and green locally. We are in a peculiar position because of the hurricane," said Martin.

The distribution of the food locally is being handled from JP's Retirement Road complex in Kingston.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com