Spur Tree Spices Jamaica Limited is planting more peppers to fuel its sales.
Sales grew three per cent to $394.5 million in the March 2024 quarter, but raw material shortfalls kept sales subdued. In response, the company recently started planting peppers.
“These shortages impacted the company’s ability to fulfil customer orders during the quarter,” Spur Tree said.
Not only were orders impacted but the company was faced with higher costs to source raw materials outside its operations. Profit for the March quarter totalled $28 million from US$48 million in the previous year.
Spur Tree’s farms have 13 acres of scotch bonnet pepper under cultivation and 12 acres of west red pepper. It also has enough seedlings in its nursery to plant another 18 acres of Scotch Bonnet Pepper in the coming weeks. This will bring the total acreage of pepper under cultivation to 43, with an expected output of over 650,000 lbs, the company said.
“This level of output, supplemented by supplies from our farming partners, will guarantee adequate quantities of pepper for the remainder of 2024,” said the company.
During the quarter, Spur Tree launched 37 new SKUs across several product lines to include, dry seasonings, fried chicken mix, BBQ sauces, and a range of condiments including dips.
“Many of these formulations are first to market and based on market research and customer engagement, it is expected that these new items will gain significant traction in all current markets, locally and internationally,” said the company.
Spur Tree is worth $1.5 billion in total assets.
