New egg-processing plant to open in Jamaica

The new plant’s full capacity is 18,000 eggs per hour, but will begin at 56 per cent capacity.

The plant will be run in partnership between Jamaica’s poultry sector and a local distributor looking to cash in on demand for liquefied eggs, which are currently imported into the country.

The plant, Caribbean Egg Processors (CEP), is a joint venture formed by a newly incorporated company called Liquid Eggs Limited (LEL) and the Montego Bay-based Caribbean Producers Limited.

Liquid Eggs, whose major shareholders include members of the Jamaica Egg Farmers Association and others, has a 70 per cent stake in CEP, while Caribbean Producers owns the other 30 per cent, according to Norman Williams, general manager of Jamaica Egg Services Limited (JES).

Operating at 56 percent of maximum capacity, says Williams, is enough to make the plant viable.

“The excess capacity was considered prudent with respect to projected further growth in the target market and the possibility of export to other islands in CARICOM,” said the JES manager whose company is a full subsidiary of the St Catherine-based Jamaica Broilers Group.

The plant is to be the Caribbean’s first egg processing facility, and is meant to tap the hotel market where there is high and an estimated growing demand for liquid eggs.