The initiative, which represents a milestone in inter-agency collaboration, will see positive spin-offs in terms of value-added benefits for all the entities involved - the Ministry of Education, Nutrition Products Limited, Jamaica Exotic Flavours & Essences Company Limited (JEFE) and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce - while at the same time, advancing the Agriculture Ministry’s drive to promote increased consumption of local produce.
The School Feeding Programme currently spends $225.5 million on imported milk powder, along with artificial chocolate and cherry flavouring which is added to the ‘milk-drink’, and served alternately with an artificial fruit-flavoured drink and a Nutri-bun on a daily basis to children participating in the programme.
The proposal which Cabinet has just approved is to replace the imported inputs with natural fruit juice blends, formulated from locally produced melon, June plum, and orange concentrates. This will reduce the demand for foreign exchange, and impact positively on the economies of the rural farming communities – given that once fully operationalized, the programme will absorb approximately 500,000 pounds of melon alone, on an annual basis.
How will the programme work?
The Jamaica Citrus Growers’ Association has an inventory of 153,452 gallons of orange concentrate; and the Agriculture Ministry is in now in dialogue with them in a bid to channel it into the programme.
The next link in the chain is the JEFE, which is 90% Government owned and is now operating well below capacity. This Programme will tap into the unutilized capacity, and based on its advanced spinning cone column technology, the company will be able to exercise price flexibility, so as to produce and sell the juice blends to Nutrition Products Limited at the same unit price of nine dollars, eight cents ($9.08) as the artificially flavoured milk drink. As such, the Education Ministry will not be required to commit any additional funds to support the proposed substitution of locally manufactured juices.
Inter-agency Dialogue
There has been ongoing collaboration with the three government Ministries involved, as well as Nutrition Products and JEFE to shape the project; and the Bureau of Standards has also been brought on board, in order to establish the nutritional profiles of the proposed fruit juice formulations. Jamaica Exotic Flavours & Essences has negotiated contracts with farmers to guarantee continuous supplies of June plum and melon; while the Agriculture Ministry is currently in dialogue with the Citrus Growers’ Association to supply a juice blend to be used in the programme on an ongoing basis.
In addition, the collaboration has also been widen to include the Egg Industry Cluster, which has approached the Ministry of Education with a proposal to replace the imported butter oil used in the Nutri-bun with liquid eggs, manufactured at the Local Liquid Egg Plant. At present, the School Feed Programme spends $127 million dollars annually on imports of butter oil, which is used in the Nutri-bun recipe. The substitution of liquid eggs would not only save foreign exchange, but also provide a healthier alternative for the children, as butter oil reportedly contains a significant amount of saturated fat.
Pilot phase
The programme will be initially rolled out beginning with a pilot operating in select schools between now and year-end, with full implementation starting in January 2010.
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