DISCUSSIONS BETWEEN Content Agricultural Products and fast food chain, McDonald's Jamaica Ltd, are expected to reach an agreement early next year resulting in the food franchise using local beef at its outlets.
If the deal is sealed, it would brush aside the Government's shaky agreement with McDonald's, which would have seen the food chain buy about 208,000 pounds of beef per month from local farmers and then ship it to Guatemala where it would be processed before being returned to Jamaica, duty-free in the form of mince.
Ian Parsard, managing director of Content said last week the discussions with McDonald's had been proceeding well and there were only a few hurdles to be cleared before an agreement could be reached.
"We have been in dialogue with McDonald's for a long time and it would be fair to say that at this point we are the closest we have ever been in terms of being able to do business together," he said.
Early next year a team from the food franchise parent company in the United States will visit Content to inspect its processing facilities. This will be a follow-up visit to one conducted about a year ago, and will determine whether Content clinches the deal to supply the franchise with beef. Efforts to get a comment from McDonald's were unsuccessful up to press time last night.
Currently Content is pumping about $250 million into the upgrading of a chill room to store the carcasses of cattle. This, Mr. Parsard said, was not being done in preparation for the McDonald's inspection but he hoped it would impress the inspection team, anyway.
