Tag: RainforestSeafoods

Shaw enters the Rainforest

rainforests-tilapia-fish-up-to-standard

Finance Minister Audley Shaw and a team from his ministry and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) yesterday toured Rainforest Seafoods’ 30,000 square-foot processing plant at Slipe Road in Kingston, where they received a first-hand look at the operations of the Caribbean’s largest supplier of premium quality seafood.

The team included minister of state Rudyard Spencer, PSOJ President PB Scott, and PSOJ Chief Executive Officer Dennis Chung.

The state-of-the-art, climate-controlled processing plant is HACCP-certified and has the capability of producing value-added products to include breading, battering, brining, cooking, pickling, portioning and smoking.

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is a food-safety system that helps food business operators look at how they handle food. The system utilises procedures to make sure the food produced is safe to eat.

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Shaw-enters-the-Rainforest_86524

ministers-shaw-and-spencer-tour-rainforest-seafoods

Swimming Boss Backs Rainforest Seafoods Ambassador Alia Atkinson for Sportswoman Prize

rf-star-december-20-2016-pg-21

Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) President Handel Lamey is throwing full support behind swimming standard bearer Alia Atkinson, whom he is hoping will win her second RJR Sports Foundation National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Award next month.

The prestigious annual awards ceremony will be held on January 13 at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

In 2015, Atkinson became the first swimmer to win the national award since Belinda Phillips in 1974.

According to Lamey, the only blemish on the 28-year-old national record holder’s performances this year was not medalling at the Olympics.

“I think she is a very strong candidate for this year, being that she has established 100m world record, 50m world record and the only thing is that she did not achieve an Olympic medal. But in terms of performance, she has done exceedingly well,” the ASAJ boss told STAR Sports.

Atkinson, who won three medals at the Short Course (SC) Worlds and broke the 50m breaststroke SC would record, will be looking to upstage double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson for the top award.

Locally, Lamey points to the swimmer’s impact as tremendous, considering Atkinson a household name.

“It’s a big deal for us, considering that she has been the only swimmer in a long time that has had received the award. She is very good to have been nominated on so many occasions and having won it,” he said.

From a sporting association level, the president says the decorated swimmer gives a lot of exposure.

“When you look out there in the winning environment, there aren’t that many black swimmers coming from this region who are participating at that level,” stressed Lamey.

Atkinson cites sponsors, such as Rainforest Seafoods, as key to her success

rf-seafoods-december-15-2016

MONTEGO BAY, St James — FINA Short Course world record holder Alia Atkinson has lauded the assistance from her sponsors Rainforest Seafoods and the Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) in helping her reach to the top of word swimming.

At a luncheon held in her honour yesterday at the offices of Rainforest Seafoods in Freeport, Montego Bay, Atkinson, who won three medals at the recent FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Windsor, Canada, presented her sponsors with one of her medals from the World Cup held in Doha, Qatar. She told them she would not have been able to accomplish most of her targets this year without their help.

“Swimming was not that big here in Jamaica and I needed the finance, I needed the help,” she admitted. “Not only did it help me reach to meets that I could not reach before, but it made me feel somewhat like I was on the same level playing field as the rest of the world.”

Atkinson, who suffered a major disappointment after finishing last in her pet event, the 100m breastroke at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August, said the swimmers from other countries got everything they needed to enhance their performances. “The silliest things that you can even think of,” she said, before noting that even the arrangements by the world governing body for swimming favoured those from the more developed countries.

“At the last World Championships, there were six different hotels and all the countries that were expected to medal were in the best hotels, and the others were in the rickety ones around the corner. Everything, from the food and the environment, was a step down.”

It was the support from her sponsors and the ASAJ, she said, that made the difference for her. “If it was not for the support from Rainforest and from Jamaica swimming and Jamaica itself, I would not be able to bring myself up to that level and know that I could do well,” she said.

“It’s not just about you giving someone money…it’s hard to say, but it embodies who I am and it keeps me fighting.”

This season has seen ups and downs, she said, from the Olympics let down to breaking a World Short Course 100m breaststroke record and finish the season strongly. But she said she will fight on.

“There have been ups and down; life is a fight and we can’t give up because life throws you a curveball when you are expecting a straight one,” she said. “I want to build up swimming for people of colour, and for Jamaica; I want to build up children’s characters and teach them that they must try to excel and not just to give up.”

Roger Lyn, marketing manager for Rainforest Seafoods, called Atkinson a “true ambassador, the type of person we want to align our brand with, not just being an athlete, but the example that you set”.

In his welcome he said the alignment between the swimmer and the brand was perfect. “We are seafood and all about the ocean, so we are happy to make the partnership happen this year.”

Ernest Grant, general manager of Rainforest Seafoods, said Atkinson had raised the profile of the sport. “You are now a household name and have inspired many others,” he said, as he reminded Jamaicans that athletes are not just those who run and jump.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport/Atkinson-cites-sponsors-as-key-to-her-success_83728