Jamaica's cotton opportunity

Andrew Green, Staff Reporter

Jamaica should become the centre of a Caribbean Sea Island cotton industry, says international business consultant, Skip Weitzen.

If Jamaica unites with other Caribbean cotton producers, it can become the regional processing centre for the crop, Mr. Weitzen said. He was speaking to Sunday Business at a business strategy workshop in Kingston on Wednesday of last week.

"The project is perfectly feisible," Mr. Weitzen said. "You can move up the value chain from being only a supplier of raw material."

Sea Island cotton is grown in Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Montserrat and St. Kitts & Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The finest in the world, this cotton is exported to Japan, the United States, Italy, France and the United Kingdom for blending with cheaper fibres.

Other Caribbean islands can seize the opportunity to begin processing the crop regionally if Jamaica chooses to ignore the opportunity, Mr. Weitzen said. Mr. Weitzen, was in Jamaica to lead the two-day High Impact Growth Strategy Workshop at the Jamaica Conference Centre, which ended on Friday. The Workshop was organised by the Technology Innovation Centre at the University of Technology.

The Jamaica Agricultural Development Foundation (JADF) has been attempting to re-popularise the crop in Jamaica, the Foundation's chief executive officer, Vitus Evans, told The Gleaner in June. He said Caribbean countries are moving to increase the price of the cotton from US$7 to US$10 a pound, and there are few crops that can compete with its potential.

Jamaica has produced cotton for hundreds of years, with the industry alternating between periods of revival and decline. One top Government official who works in business finance told Sunday Business that the crop was not as attractive an investment as it appears, because it is very difficult to grow, has low yields, and is highly labour intensive.

But Mr. Weitzen said local processing would allow farmers to get better prices for their crops. The JADF estimates that just 200 acres of the cotton was produced in the Caribbean during the crop year 2000/2001, the bulk of it under rainy conditions. More than $44 million has been spent by the JADF since 1994, exploring the viability of growing West Indian Sea Island cotton in Jamaica. Last year it established a 60-acre project with Jamaica Producers Group at Agualta Vale in St. Mary and another 20 acre project with the HEART Trust/NTA at Ebony Park.

To achieve success with the crop Mr. Evans told the Sunday Business, Jamaica needs to develop a coherent marketing strategy.

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