French fries made from locally grown sweet potatoes should be on supermarket shelves by Christmas.
St Philip farmer Richard Armstrong, managing director of Armag Farms Limited, made the disclosure yesterday as he took Minister of Industry, Small Business and Rural Development Denis Kellman and a team of agricultural officials on a tour of Sunbury Plantation, where sweet potatoes are being grown for the agro-processing project.
A test facility has already been set up for preliminary production of the fries and sampling is taking place at supermarkets.
Armstrong said that Armag, owners of Sunbury Estates in St Philip, and Colleton Estates in St John, had been planting about 100 acres of sweet potatoes per year, resulting in a yield of about 24 000 pounds of potatoes being moved through the company’s packing houses weekly. (GC)
