Trade Winds Citrus Ltd. - Production Facilities

Our manufacturing facility consists of a fresh fruit-packing house, a concentrate plant, puree plant and a juice blending and bottling plant as well as a refrigerated distribution system.

Fresh Fruit Packinghouse

The fresh fruit packing house prepares fresh citrus fruits for the local and export market. In this facility, fresh citrus fruits are washed, waxed, sized and packaged into bags, cartons or bulk pallet bins. The product is then shipped as refrigerated cargo to markets in Europe and the Caribbean. The facility has the capacity to pack over 200,000 lbs per day (8-12 hours).

Concentrate Plant

The concentrate plant converts fresh citrus fruits into frozen concentrate. In this facility, the fresh citrus fruits are washed and the juice extracted. The juice is then strained and passed through an evaporator that boils off the majority (85%) of the water leaving a concentrated juice, which is then stored in drums and frozen. The frozen concentrate is then sold locally, exported or is used in the juice blending and bottling plant. The facility has the capacity to produce 4,500 gallons of concentrate per day (24 hours).

Blending and Bottling

In our blending facility various raw materials are used in specific amounts in accordance with our recipes to make each flavor. All these raw materials must first be approved by our Quality Control Team (QCT) before being used. Once blended and again approved by the QCT the product is pasteurized and sent to refrigerated holding tanks to await bottling.

Our beverages are then packaged in bottles, gable top boxes or bags using high-speed fillers. Our product sizes range from 280ml to 18.9Litres. For traceability and to inform our consumers, all our packages contain a batch code and expiry date. After filling, the product is packaged in crates and conveyed to the staging area, where it is palletized and then transported to the storage facility for stocking and distribution.

Puree Plant

In our Puree Plant we process a wide cross-section of Jamaican fruits, while in season. These include Sorrel, Mango, June Plum, Carrots and Banana. The process of extracting the juice varies according to the type of fruit. Once the juice has been extracted it is either used immediately in our blending facility, or stored in 55 gallon drums and frozen for out of season use.

Refrigerated Distribution System

All our beverage products are required to be kept chilled throughout their life-cycle, so to ensure product integrity TWCL has invested in a “state of the art” chilled distribution system. This begins with our 20,000 square foot cold room at our head office in Bog Walk St. Catherine and we distribute island-wide with our fleet of over 30 refrigerated trucks.