Jamaica Agriculture ministry to increase ginger production for export

Ministry seeks to increase number of ginger farmers across the island

Jamaica is looking to export ginger by increasing production.

General manager of the Export Division of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Byron Henry says the authorities will seek also to increase the number of ginger farmers across the island and the ministry is focusing on the tissue culture method in order to produce disease-free ginger plants for farmers, especially in the parishes of St James, Portland, Manchester, St Thomas and Clarendon.

What we really need to do is to push the tissue culture production, so that we can provide clean seed materials for the farmers. What we are promoting is that the farmers do not replant what they have out in the field, but to visit a nursery or producer of tissue culture material and use that continuously to replenish their stock.”

Henry said  Jamaica’s ginger production continues to suffer from the rhizome rot disease, which damaged the industry in the 1990s, although there was some level of recovery in 2013.

He added that there is currently a domestic demand for over three million pounds of ginger annually, while the demand for the product on the export market is significantly higher.

The ministry is now collaborating with the Scientific Research Council (SRC) in the production of clean ginger plants, so that within a year, there will be enough disease-free planting material for farmers, including greenhouse operators.