The Trinidad and Tobago Agri-business Association (TTABA) is a “For Development Company” established in May 2006 by private sector agri-business stakeholders with government’s support to accelerate national economic and social development through the sustainable expansion of the Agri-business sector.

As a “for development not for profit company” TTABA is not owned by private shareholders but by its current 33 member associations drawn from every level of the agri-business sector and cannot disburse dividends/profits to individual members but must reinvest its profits to further its objective of actively leading the development and expansion of the agri-business sector in Trinidad and Tobago.

Our membership and 13-member Board of Directors are comprised of representatives from the farmers associations, commodity associations, the Supermarket Association, The Hotel and Restaurant Association, the Agro-processors Association, the Agricultural Exporters Association, the Housewives/Consumers Association and the Input Suppliers Association.

Government representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Development Bank and the Tobago House of Assembly also sit on the Board.   

Our core business is the provision of technical services for the development of selected agricultural commodity/industry value-chains and the provision of high quality agro-processing services.

Our Grand Strategy is to develop agro-industry value-chains and provide agro-processing services to support 3 critical pillars of national development, namely:

• Health/nutrition  security
• Bio-energy security and
• Environmental security.

Currently our assets include:

• Membership
  • Current membership of 33 associations with hundreds of individuals committed to the vision of TTABA.
    
    
• Human Resources
  • 13 Board Members with extensive academic and practical training, each with 15- 30 years of experience in all aspects of management in the private and public sectors.
  • 24 professionals, six with Masters Degree, 15 with B.sc. Degrees
  • 8 Technical and Administrative staff with Diplomas and Certificates
  • 52 dedicated workers with a range of skills and experiences.
    
    
• Physical Assets
  • US$ 6 million invested in fixed and floating assets ( 3 agro-processing plants with lines for processing frozen root crops, fruit purees, juices, sauces, dried staples and precut chilled vegetables)

Agricultural production

The company has over 3000 acres of good agricultural lands available for contract farming with small farmers associations and with large farm enterprise. Some 27% of this land is under irrigation and the entire acreage will be irrigated by the end of 2011.

Agro-processing production

50,000 sq.ft factory and warehouse facilities comprising of 3 processing plants (30,000 sq.ft)  in Point Lisas Industrial Estate established for the processing of frozen root crops, precut fruits and vegetables and dried staples and herbs, as well as a 20,000 sq,ft ware house in Free Port, ten minutes from the processing plant.

The following lines are now operational:

• A semi- automated frozen or chilled coconut water line capable of producing 8 tonnes/day or 2112 tonnes per year single shift)

• An automated frozen fruit and vegetable line capable of producing 1.5 tonnes per hour ( 10 tonnes/day  or 2640 tonnes per year single shift)

• An automated fresh pre-cut fruit and vegetable/salad line capable of producing 500-800 kgs per hour ( 3.5- 6.5 tonnes/day or 924-1400 tonnes per year single shift)

• An automated finger food extruding line capable of 150 kgs per hour (1 tonne/day or 264 tonnes per year single shift)

• A staples and vegetable drying line capability of producing 2 tonnes of dried product per/day (528 tonnes per year single shift).

Our freezing operation except for coconut water is done using the “State of the Art” Octo-Frost IQF freezer known as the “Rolls Royce’ of the IQF freezing industry.