Four years into his role as CEO of Seprod Limited and an equal number of years of campaigning to push growth in Jamaica’s agriculture sector, it was a moment of “mixed emotions” for Richard Pandohie, who has been appointed the new president of the Jamaica Manufacturing and Exporters Association (JMEA).
“On one hand, I feel extremely privileged to be selected by you to lead this association. On the other hand, I feel overwhelmed as the magnitude of the task and expectations sink in. I am comforted by the fact that this association is built on a legacy of teamwork and an incredible support structure,” Pandohie said on Thursday upon his election to the presidency.
Pandohie, who previously held the post of deputy president at the JMEA, has been called upon to play a greater role as primary representative of Jamaica’s manufacturing and export sector.
In recent years, he had a no-holds-barred position on calling out the Government for insufficient focus on agriculture which, ultimately, impacted the outputs of manufacturers who look to farmers for raw materials.
He was one of the drivers of the ‘Drink Real Milk’ campaign aimed at driving up local milk production by 20 million litres annually as he sought to re-establish a sustainable and self-sufficient dairy industry, which has seen a sharp and consistent decline from 38.8 million litres in 1992.
He was also recognised for lobbying with state regulator Sugar Industry Authority for marketing-agency status, which allows a private company to find its own sugar markets. And he was one of the first to complain to the Anti-Dumping Commission about the dumping of flour, said to be imported from Trinidad & Tobago, into the local market. The situation, he charged, was causing material damage to the local flour industry and presented a clear and present danger for all.
“Jamaica’s manufacturing and export sector is not what it was. Decades of underinvestment, high interest rate policy, high energy costs, migration of skilled workforce, among other factors, have led to severe contraction of the industry, dropping us from the heady days of 20 per cent of GDP and 120,000 employees to our current 8.6 per cent of GDP and 79,000 employees,” the new president said at the JMEA annual general meeting.
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