Arrowroot harvesting officially got underway in the Northern side of the island on Monday, January 25th, with approximately 150 acres to be harvested.
“We are expecting a yield of a little over 1 million pounds, so we have a lot of work to do,” said Manager for the Arrowroot Industry Association, Cauldric Brown.
Brown explained that they are a bit late, since harvesting should have commenced in late November early December, but there were some problems at the factory which had to be sorted out first.
He noted that a few years ago, farmers were being paid 25 cents per pound, which was not attractive to the farmers so most farmers went out of production, but now that the price has moved to one dollar, a lot of farmers got back into production.
With anticipation of harvesting a large quantity of starch, Mr. Brown disclosed that the Arrowroot Industry Association is seeking new markets.
