Why Ministry of Agriculture and BSJ Branded Sugar Packaging and Labelling protects the Jamaican Consumer

“What the new packaging standards will ensure is that all Sugar in the retail trade, whether refined or locally produced raw Sugar, is really subject to proper food health and safety standards. What obtains now is that persons buy in bulk and parcel out or package it in the back of a supermarket, and we don't know under what kind of conditions”

Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary, Donovan Stanberry commenting on the BSJ (Bureau of Standards) move to create standard packaging and labeling of Sugar

The days of shopkeepers packaging out Sugar by the 1 lb and 2lb will soon be a thing of the past. This as the BSJ (Bureau of Standards Jamaica) is working on standards for the labelling and packaging of Sugar for retail distribution as reported in the article “Retail Sugar Goes Up Market” Published Friday November 13, 2015 by Neville Graham, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

The coming packaging standards are aimed at the two local distributors of packed refined Sugar:

1.      JCPS (Jamaica Cane Product Sales) and co-packing partner Caribbean Depot Limited

2.      DK Processors Jamaica Limited and their unknown co-packing partner

DK Processors Jamaica Limited, located at 1 Bushy Park in St Catherine, entered the refined Sugar market in September 2015 with their branded product Diamond Krystal as reported in the article “New Refined Sugar Trader Quietly Enters Market As Reform Stalls”, published Friday November 6, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

They are currently the second producer of refined white Sugar, which has to imported from outside of Jamaica. A third processor, Golden Grove, Sugar Company, plans to launch branded Sugar in 2016. So too will many large supermarkets, like Hi-Lo, which may also introduce their own store brands.

The project will not only do away with retail sellers packaging the Sugar in plastic bags, but will also bulk packaging systems that currently exist, enhancing consumer safety.

After all, you really don't know what conditions the Sugar is being weighed and placed into plastic bags at the back of your local retail shop and hearken to the desire by consumers for a quality product, to quote Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary, Donovan Stanberry: “Which consumer wouldn't want their Sugar nicely packaged? Also, which consumer wouldn't want to be assured that when they pick up a one-kilogramme bag of Sugar that is really packaged under sanitary conditions? This package is more empowering for the consumer”.

So what will this new packaging look like? And does this means the price of Sugar is set to increase?

Ministry of Agriculture and BSJ packaged and Branded Sugar - Packaging Sugar to protect the Jamaican consumer

The new packaging will emphasize the fact that Sugar is a processed product and will bears labeling standards long touted by the BSJ:

1.      Factory or estate that manufactured the Sugar

2.      Processor

3.      Distributor

4.      Nutritional information

This move could also mark the coming of new products from the Sugar sector, such as Sugar packages in liquid form and processed white Sugar and even Sugar cubes.

So says Agriculture Minister Derrick Kellier in Ocho Rios on Friday November 6^th 2015 at the Annual Conference of Jamaica Association of Sugar Technologists as reported in the article “Govt Close To Reaching Agreement With JMA On Sugar Cess”, published November 6, 2015 by Marlon Tingling, The Jamaica Information Service.

To quote Agriculture Minister Derrick Kellier, packaging was a long time coming as it’ll mean more money in the GOJ’s tax till by creating a new product, quote: “The Government is going to further create the environment for diversification by mandating by law that all Sugar in the retail trade in Jamaica be subject to the new standards of labelling and packaging. Not only will this enhance our food supply as a nation, but it will create a new industry”.

Why does this sound as if the Government is trying to make more money from Sugar?

Branded Sugar Price increases - How GOJ plans to catch unbranded duty-free imported Sugar while making it export-ready

Turns out it may well be!

Expect price increases to increase in a manner similar to the difference between bulk Brown Sugar and Branded Sugar in the supermarkets:

1.      JA$138/kg for bulk Brown Sugar

2.      JA$178/kg for Branded Sugar

JCPS General Manager Karl James pointed out that this is an example of the price you'll have to pay for a quality product, quote: “It's a bit more, but not that much more. We can see this as insurance for your health. You can't go anywhere in the United States and buy Sugar like that; it's all packaged nicely”.

By packaging Sugar, it becomes a processed product, no different from a bottle of ketchup or a tin of bully beef, with identification marks that make the Sugar traceable back to its source. This cost will no doubt be passed on to the consumer, as the packaging isn’t free. But it also means to protect the consumer from raw Sugar imported for further processing into refined Sugar.

This Sugar, which is imported duty free by the eighty two (82) licensed Sugar importers in Jamaica, to be used in making Sugar is being siphoned off by unscrupulous persons and sold in the retail shops and supermarkets as Jamaican Sugar.

By having a branded pre-packaged product that's properly labeled and identifies the source of the Sugar, it'll make it harder for retailers to palm off this duty-free Sugar as a Jamaican product to quote Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary, Donovan Stanberry: “It will better enable us to monitor and regulate the matter of leakage because if everything is subject to packaging standards, then it will be more difficult to divert duty-free Sugar into the retail trade”.

This will help the Health Authorities to catch those retail sellers selling this unbranded duty-free imported Sugar that has not undergone processing and thus not fully taxed by the state to quote Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary, Donovan Stanberry: “Imported refined Sugar can undermine local Sugar production. We know that there has been a long-standing practice of duty evasion on imported Sugar for the manufacturing sector, which is zero-rated”.

Local manufacturers now on board with the Ministry of Agriculture – Branded Sugar means more money for local producers.

Standards are a good way of doing this, but the manufacturers and the Minister of Agriculture Derrick Kellier haven't always see eye-to-eye. The initially used their lobby power to block the centralization of refined imports and distribution under state agency SIA (Sugar Industry Authority).

But being behind globally, export of Sugar to the Caribbean region and internationally needs standard packaging and labeling, money that the Sugar producers cannot ignore. Plus the move will help them to develop their own branded Sugar products such as white processed Sugar as well as Sugar cubes and even liquid Sugar.

All while protecting their local industry from duty-free imports that are slowly flooding the market!

To quote JCPS General Manager Karl James: “This is a matter that many of us have been trying to get the Sugar industry itself, and the region, to work towards. When you put the Sugar on the shelf for the consumer to pick it up, it should be Sugar that is branded, made by a reputable or approved institution with the necessary information for traceability, so that if anything were to go wrong you would know exactly where to turn [to]”.

This may be to the benefit of all, but it'll also translate to an increase price in Sugar in the retail and supermarket trade this Christmas and by the first Quarter of 2016.