Pepper Queen makes marketing breakthrough
Her products have been selling in selected gourmet markets in the United States since 1986. But come September Marie Sharp’s hot pepper sauce will be hitting the taste buds of millions of customers in the south-eastern United States. According to Sharp, she has entered into agreements with the major super market chains of Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie and Publix that will put her Belizean heat on the shelves of thousands of stores. In a telephone interview from her Stann Creek factory this afternoon, Sharp told News Five that the high cost of getting her products into super markets in the States has been keeping her out for years, but claims that the good publicity from so many returning tourists was responsible for the marketing breakthrough. While it is a dream come true for her, the ?pepper queen? says the entry of her products into these major chains will bring economic benefits to hundreds of local farmers and workers.
Marie Sharp, Proprietor, Marie Sharp?s Products
?I don?t have an exact figure yet because I am waiting on Publix to see what they are going to take, but it wants to look like anywhere between three and six containers a month.?
Patrick Jones
?Now where are you going to get all the pepper needed for you to fill those containers??
Marie Sharp
Well, I have been planting a lot on my own. To date, I think we have like about fifteen acres and we intend to go up to twenty-five or more if we need, but we have planted quite a bit on our own.?
?As soon as I heard about Wal-Mart I got together with the Ministry of Agriculture and we have been asking small farmers to go into peppers and to plant peppers. Peppers is a cash crop it?s a four month crop.?
?It looks good for me, it looks good for the small farmers, because then we will be able to be moving more of the fruits, all the tropical fruits. I mean they will have a place to sell all their guavas, and their papayas and the mangoes and their pineapples, and all the other fruits that we use in the process here.?
?This will mean that we will have to take on full time people in just cooking, preparing, preparation, and full time people just filling, and then another full time set of people just to produce the jams.?
Patrick Jones
?So between now and September you will be bulking up your staff??
Marie Sharp
?Yes, it?s going to be like triple. And then don?t forget the farms also, because if we have to be extending our pepper farming, we will be taking on again. Out in the farms we have like about twenty-five, and if we are going to be doing all that we say we are doing on the farm it?s going to be like another twenty-five.?
?No, I would have never thought I would have seen this in my lifetime. I am very happy that it has happened, that I can see it during my lifetime, but to be honest with you, this is beyond my dreams. I never thought I would have seen it.?
The first shipment of Marie Sharp’s products destined for the States is scheduled to leave the Belize City port on September fifteenth. Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie will be carrying three varieties of hot sauce, while Publix will stock the hot sauce and her line of jams and jellies.
