Letter of the Day | Jamaica losing out on opportunities

THE EDITOR, Madam:

“Breadfruit and cassava for Gov’t’s wheat flour substitution programme” said the then agriculture portfolio minister Pearnel Charles Jr in The Gleaner on July 5, 2022.

He also said, “It urges us and so we will be updating the food and nutrition security policy to boost the consumption of locally grown nutritious foods.”

In addition, breadfruit is in high demand by those in the diaspora and it is not uncommon to see a breadfruit going for between J$2,000 to a high of J$4,000 in the UK, Canada or the US.

In addition other people regularly use breadfruit in their dishes, some describe it as a superfood. Even though it was pledged in 2022 to increase production of the fruit, to-date we’ve seen very little increase as a matter of fact our productive capacity has decreased due inadequate tree care, trees lost in the hurricane and a lacklustre tree planting programme.

In May 2024 the United Nations and the World Food Program met in Jamaica with the Trees that Feed Organisation the United Nations and the World Food Program agreed to purchase 20 tonnes of breadfruit flour from Haiti.

Ironically the Jamaica Observer carried this story “Jamaicans teach Haitians how to grow breadfruit” in 2015. Since then, the Haitians continue to plant more trees and explore different ways to use the fruit including making breadfruit flour and also using it to make a nutritious four-inch round dumpling bread.

In nine years Haiti has been able to develop a sustainable breadfruit flour programme, which tells us that it can be done.

Recently a shipment of breadfruit left Honduras for Miami. All of this is cooked frozen breadfruit will be headed to Jamaican restaurants in Miami. This is an opportunity that Jamaica is missing out on.

In addition we’ve also failed to establish a program to use breadfruit flour as a product substitution for wheat flour as Minister Charles said in 2022.

Breadfruit could also be used in our national school feeding programme similar to what Haiti currently does. When nutri-bun was withdrawn from the schools, I suggested that it be replaced with a breadfruit substitute. We currently have a local company making a nutritious breadfruit bulla, this could be adapted to make a nutritious cake for our children who go to school without breakfast.

Breadfruit flour could be utilised in the meals for patients at public hospitals and prison inmates. Also, there is a market for breadfruit and breadfruit flour.

We currently have a handful of companies that manufacture breadfruit flour but our production capacity is very low due to the lack of breadfruit. We just don’t have enough plants to produce enough fruits to take advantage of the opportunities.

The government needs to work with farmers to develop orchards and encourage individuals to plant more trees – breadfruit trees should be given free of cost to farmers.

One wonders what is stopping us from seizing these opportunities. I really don’t have an answer, except to say, other countries are taking advantage. Let’s hope that one day we will wake up.

STEVE MCDONALD