Jamaica wants to boost coconut cultivation

Floyd Green, the Jamaican Agriculture Minister, has announced that the Jamaican government is looking for appropriate public-private partnerships to promote coconuts. Green explained that the government through the Coconut Industry Board (CIB) is looking for private growers to increase the availability of coconut palms for the industry. "Thanks to this collaboration, we expect to produce 400,000 seedlings annually, which equates to a growth of 400%. We want to use this to plant over 1,200 hectares." According to Green, the demand for coconuts and by-products, such as coconut water and oil, is enormous and this creates new opportunities for the island. “Over the past year, we expanded our nurseries at the Barton Isles and Plantation Garden and set out more than 75,000 seedlings and planted 100,000 coconut palms, but we need to pick up the pace, hence this partnership,” Green told Nationnews.com. Ministry supports the development of 404 hectares of mango orchards The Ministry of ...