ALEX Kaminsky, the managing director of Diamond R Fertiliser that manufactures the fertiliser now at the centre of a controversy, yesterday vehemently defended the integrity of his product saying that the company would challenge anyone to prove that the fertiliser imported into the island was unprocessed or unsafe.

KAMINSKY. we challenge anyone who tries to discredit our product (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

Kaminsky, however, declined to comment on the use of bio-solids in the manufacturing of fertiliser by Diamond R.
"There is no human faecal material in our fertiliser," Kaminsky declared in an interview with the Observer, adding the manufacturing process eliminated any such possibilities.

"Diamond R will challenge anyone who tries to discredit our product," he emphasised.

Fertiliser from the Florida manufacturing company is at the centre of accusations by Opposition spokesman on agriculture, Roger Clarke, that human excrement was present in fertiliser shipments imported by Government over a six-month period.

Clarke called for local tests to confirm the safety of the product inspite of Government's insistence that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had approved the fertiliser.

"We can stand up to any test, local or otherwise," Kaminsky told the Observer yesterday, adding that the same product shipped to Jamaica was used in the US and other countries.
"We don't have a problem bringing experts from anywhere to test the product," he said.

Kaminsky added that Diamond R, with more than 66 years in the business, sells over 260,000 tonnes of fertiliser annually to the US, Canada and other countries.

He was in the island regarding the establishment of a local distributor for the fertiliser.

In Parliament on Tuesday and in a subsequent press conference Wednesday, Clarke questioned the safety of using the imported fertiliser and suggested that it contained unprocessed human excrement because of its extremely foul smell.

But Government officials responded saying that the former minister of agriculture was playing politics and misrepresenting the facts.

Minister of Trade Karl Samuda said that proper procedures were followed in conducting the importation while Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton added that all the relevant approvals were granted.

Tufton said that the fertiliser from Diamond R is manufactured using bio-solids, but undergoes a heat process that renders microbes ineffective. Bio-solid is a term used to describe the by-product of domestic and commercial sewage and waste-water treatment. The residuals are then treated to reduce pathogens.

However, yesterday, Kaminsky said he was uncertain about the exact composition of the fertiliser but contended that its foul smell was an indication that it was more potent.

"I am not a technical person, I cannot answer to the composition of it," he declared.

In the meantime, Kaminsky said that his company was confident about coming into Jamaica and becoming competitive. "We are looking at entering the Jamaican market and have been doing a lot of market research over the last six months," he disclosed.