By next February T&T is expected to start producing tens of thousands of pounds of assorted berries and organic greens annually, as a project to grow temperate crops in an advanced greenhouse farm starts at the Cove Industrial Estate, Tobago.
The project will initially utilise two acres of land but will be eventually expand to 12 acres as the production is anticipated to expand significantly.
At the heart of the project is a new company called Berrycove Ltd, a joint venture between Anthony N Sabga Ltd, Island Growers Caribbean and Alquimi Renewables LLC.
“The project will go under construction immediately, and we are scheduled to have first berries out by late January or early February” said Ralph Birkhoff, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Island Growers Caribbean, who will also take on the role of GM at Berrycove.
He told the Business Guardian that T&T alone imports close to 70,000 pounds of strawberries a month with the concomitant loss of foreign exchange.
Birkhoff said Berrycove will eventually easily meet this demand and then start producing larger volumes for frozen regional export - in the process saving foreign exchange and then trading in US$ exports.
“And what is very interesting is the frozen berry export. With 12 acres of land, we can produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of berries a month. We will freeze them and export them regionally. Right now all frozen berries coming into the Caribbean, the entire region, is imported from the US, Mexico or South America. Just like our fresh berries, 100 per cent. We estimate the total regional frozen berry market demand at about 40 to 50 million pounds a year so it’s a massive market opportunity,” Birkhoff said.
He expected that Berrycove will be able to produce a pound of organic berries at under US $1.50.
“The fresh berries supply is our first objective. The frozen berries supply is Phase 2, but we will be moving into Phase 2 within months of Phase1 going into operation. Now, we may not do a hundred percent of the frozen daily production in T&T because basically it would make sense at some point for Berrycove to decentralise that model and perhaps build a large farm in Jamaica or elsewhere up the islands so that we don’t have to transport them as far. But for now, we are taking this one step at a time and this is the big first step,” he said.
Ralph Birkhoff, co founder and chief commercial officer of Island Growers Caribbean.
According to Birkhoff, T&T has a large food import bill and a major part of that is fresh produce.
“Our company is very cognizant of that. We have been working on building Island Growers Caribbean for three years now and you know a big part of the problem Curtis, is that while local agriculture is quite productive here in Trinidad and farmers grow a number of indigenous crops, it boils down to horticultural science, and the specific types of crops farmers can and cannot grow in this sub-tropical climate.”
At US $6 a pound landed price and 70,000 pounds a month that works out to over US $400,000 in forex spent monthly and US$5 million a year in strawberries alone.
Birkhoff added that indigenous crops, fruit and root crops do very well in this climate but the country still has to import a tremendous amount of fresh produce, especially those categorised as ‘cold weather crops’ with berries as a prime example.
There’s only one place in the Caribbean where strawberries are grown in any volume and that’s in the mountains of Jamaica which produce close to 70,000 pounds a year that is sold mainly into that island’s tourism sector.
But how is this going to be done? How is T&T going to produce not just strawberries but other crops like Romaine lettuce and baby spinach?
Birkhoff revealed that the solution lies in the use of technology that will not only ensure the ability to grow the fresh crops successfully but that they are organic and disease free.
He explained that the company has developed propriety greenhouse and hydroponic technology that is designed specifically for the Caribbean. The integrated greenhouse system is 100% hurricane, flood, earthquake and pestilent resistant, and is designed to house an advanced hydroponic system that is both energy and water efficient.
Birkhoff said, “We’re moving very quickly now. So the actual farm infrastructure will be built before the end of the year. We have to bring the plants in from Europe and the US. They’re special varieties of strawberries and blueberries and raspberries and blackberries, that are what we call season neutral. So they grow very well all year round and we have to bring in all of those plants. And that only happens in January. So they’ll be planted in January and take about 30 to 40 days before we get to first harvest”
He added, “We’re also introducing some diversified greens. So what this technology allows us to do is grow a wide variety of lettuces,fresh greens and herbs and we’re going to be growing microgreens which are extremely popular with chefs and restaurant owners. And you know, they’re grown here in relatively small quantities at the moment. We’re going to be growing them in larger quantities so we could supply commercial business demand, so I wanted to stress the point that not only is the quality going up considerably but we’re going to expand the types of fresh produce over what’s currently available.”
Birkhoff said the use of greenhouses to grow produce from other parts of the world is not unique to this project.
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“Quite frankly that’s what every country around the world is doing now—moving to greenhouse food production to offset imports. They are growing bananas in Iceland and papayas in Turkey. They don’t import bananas to Iceland anymore—they grow them locally in greenhouses,” he explained.
The first phase will be about 42,000 square feet of greenhouse area. That’s going to be divided between green produce with various lettuce, watercress, kale and spinach and the majority will be berry production.
“It’s basically four large greenhouses. Each one of them is just over 10,000 square feet. One of those greenhouses will do mixed berries, the blackberries blueberries and raspberries. They have to be grown in their own environment and a different type of system. So in total we’re going to be doing approximately 45,000 pounds of berries a month, just out of this first phase, and it is intended for fresh local supply. We are looking at the potential of exporting some of the fresh berries to places like Guyana or the islands close by, but ultimately this farm is going to grow,” Birkhoff said.
He said there are several benefits to this project including the use of industrial land and not arable land, it is high tech with agri-processing and manufacturing envisioned, limited use of water, no dangerous chemicals, the creation of hundreds of jobs eventually and, importantly, the financial backing of the ANSA Group.
“A lot of farmers throughout the region really don’t have access to the kind of financing or investment they need to expand their production because agriculture is an extremely risky business.
“By eliminating these production risks through the use of protected agriculture, we think the most exciting aspect of this partnership is the fact that a company like the ANSA Group recognised the opportunity to grow more food locally, to create an food export opportunity, to build national food security, to improve the quality of food that, in the long run can help improve the health of people here. With this partnership now in place our strategy over the next few years will be to expand and establish new farms on a number of Caribbean islands,” he ended.