Namdevco wants more produce for COVID food box

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Namdevco needs more produce from local farmers. They are looking for dasheen, cassava, plantain, pawpaw, breadfruit, baigan, pumpkin, squash, bodi, cucumbers, honeydew melon, tomatoes and other items.

Wayne Inniss, the Chairman of Namdevco, told Guardian Media that the company needs more local agro-products for its $11 million Food Box Programme that is designed to bring relief to 25,000 families monthly until September.

Speaking on Saturday from Namdevco’s packing house at Lalla Street, Chaguanas, Inniss said farmers can call to make arrangements to sell their goods.

He said Namdevco will be purchasing items in bulk. “We are dealing in large quantities, so I don’t expect someone would show up with 20 pounds of baigan.”

He said the farmers should wash their produce thoroughly, and especially in the case of root vegetables, all the mud should be removed. “We would also pay them additionally for the washing and packaging,” he added. The produce should then be placed in five-pound bags by the suppliers.

This is open to all farmers across T&T.

He said “Namdevco has 3,000 farmers on its Farm Certification Programme and these can be monitored however, there are another 20,000 plus farmers in T&T who are welcomed to supply produce, but it will be difficult to determine whether they are also purchasing produce from other farmers and supplying Namdevco.”

Inniss said Namdevco also plans to introduce eggs and a frozen soup pack that consists of local vegetables in the COVID relief hampers. He said the frozen soup pack should be distributed later this week.