A Spanish Town-based organisation has facilitated the planting of 100 acres of private ackee trees orchards across St Thomas and Clarendon – a milestone its backers say could generate more than $213 million for investors over the next decade for small farmers.
New Horizon Christian Outreach Ministries, known as NHCOM and based in Wynter’s Gardens, provides farmers with the seedlings, and also plants the trees for clients across the region. The organisation said it recently achieved its milestone target after planting an additional 30 acres in the short-term, having completed 70 acres three years ago. Those earlier plantings are already bearing fruit.
“We’re continuing to plant out our major propagation greenhouse, so that we can be one of the go-to places for ackee trees in Jamaica,” said Michael Barnett, executive director of NHCOM, in an interview.
The project sits at the intersection of faith, agribusiness and export opportunity. NHCOM operates a nursery where seedlings are propagated before being transplanted into orchards – a model it is pitching to landowners across the island. The organisation hires between 12 and 20 persons during peak planting periods and formerly ran a training programme for at-risk youth.
Critically, the project planted the firmer ‘cheese’ variety of ackee rather than the softer ‘butter’ variety, a deliberate decision to target the export market, where ackee is sold primarily as a canned product. An ackee tree begins bearing fruit within three years and can continue producing for more than 50 years, giving orchards planted today a generational earnings horizon.
Jamaica earned US$26 million from ackee exports in 2023, falling to US$18 million in 2024, a year affected by Hurricane Beryl. Data for 2025, which was disrupted by Hurricane Melissa, is not yet widely available. Exporters argue, however, that the country is leaving money on the table: Jamaica could earn as much as US$100 million annually from the national fruit. Reduced supplies in the United States have pushed the price of a tin of ackee to US$16 in Jamaican restaurants stateside, stakeholders say.
“We hit the 100-acre mark of trees now in production,” said Barnett.
He wants to see “a minimum of 1,000 acres of ackee planted” with NHCOM’s assistance.
The economics underpin the ambition. According to the Agro-Investment Corporation, Jamaica’s national agribusiness promotion agency, a 20-acre ackee farm generates an average revenue of $42.7 million over 10 years. Scaled to 100 acres, that projection implies revenue exceeding $213 million – and NHCOM’s goal of 1,000 acres nationally would represent a 10-fold multiple of that figure.
The project was funded through a grant from the state marketing agency JAMPRO, secured through the intervention of board member businessman Ian Levy and shaped by advice from Rita Hilton, head of Carita Limited, a leading exporter of Jamaican produce. The orchards are owned by more than three different entities, one of which holds a long lease on the land from a private individual.
The Government has moved in parallel. Initiatives announced in recent years include a 100-acre orchard at Ebony Park in Clarendon – split equally between ackee and mango – and, last month, a plan to establish 3,000 acres of fruit trees, including ackee, avocado, mango, breadfruit and coconut, by 2035.
luke.douglas@gleanerjm.com
