The United States have a new supplier of mangoes, now that Jamaica has been granted permission to export their mangoes to the US. Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw says the fruit will have to be prepared under a process commonly referred to as irradiation. This is a food safety measure that eliminates disease-carrying bacteria.
Now that Jamaica has permission to export the fruit, which is described as one of the more popular Jamaican fruits, Shaw said that “consideration will now have to be given to establishing orchards for these in-demand products” hoping to maximise production to be able to meet the demand.
Shaw claims there was also a “great demand for castor beans, sweet corn, sea island cotton, and coconut from Jamaica”. He said that consideration was being given to refurbishing the old Agricultural Marketing Corporation building on Spanish Town Road to be used by small entrepreneurs who want to invest in products being sought by the US market.
Source: The Jamaica Observer
