Caribbean Broilers Group has made a multimillion dollar investment to upgrade its operations and improve sustainability. The company says it has spent $15 billion for its new plant dubbed "The Nest", at Hill Run in St. Catherine.
Speaking with Radio Jamaica News recently, Joelle Fontaine, Corporate Marketing Manager at CB, said the company closed its old plant and moved into the new facility a few months ago.
The new facility is expected to boost output by about 30 per cent at optimal production.
CB said the integrated facility will also help the company reduce waste.
As part of the new facility, CB has upgraded its poultry production line, implementing new "air chilling" technology, which it said will result in less risk for cross-contamination and will be more sustainable, with the company saving 250 million litres of water each year.
Air chilling is a process in which cold air is used to lower the temperature of poultry, to meet the food safety cold temperature guidelines.
A water chilling process, which is the most popular procedure in the local and regional market, was previously used.
Ms. Fontaine said the company officially launched "Air Chilled" chicken to the market a few days ago.
CB said the implementation of the new technology has not caused an increase in the cost of its products.
Caribbean Broilers is one of the first in the Caribbean and Latin American market to adopt the air chilling technique, bringing the company to a standard already popular in the United States, Canada and in Europe.
CB is the only local operator to so far implement the process.
The Government is creating the environment to facilitate investments that can generate jobs and drive growth in the economy, says Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness.
CB Group (CBG), a regional leader in sustainable food and agriculture, has inaugurated the Caribbean's largest poultry air-chill processing plant at "The Nest," its 1,000-acre eco-industrial park in St. Catherine. Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining Floyd Green joined CBG in celebrating the opening of this transformative facility.
This JMD 15 billion investment by CB Group, one of Jamaica’s leading agribusinesses, marks the single largest investment in the country’s agricultural sector and signals a transformative shift for food security and economic growth across the region.