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No takers for many SRC products
By PATRICK FOSTER Observer writer [email protected]
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
AS Government fervently pushes its Eat What You Grow campaign, the Scientific Research Council (SRC) is lamenting that there are no takers for many of its formulations using local raw materials, including its new ackee and saltfish spread.
SRC chairman James Moss-Solomon makes a point at yesterday's Observer Monday Exchange.
In addition, while there is a drive to produce more tubers to substitute for imported carbohydrates, SRC executive director Dr Audia Barnett yesterday said that there is no facility here to process flour using local tubers.
The Jamaica Flour Mills, the island's only flour producer located at Rockfort in Kingston, converts flour from imported wheat.
"A major bottleneck is having a facility to make flour from our local tubers, it does not exist," Barnett remarked.
"If we had a major facility, then the sky is the limit. we have done several things but that is a bottleneck."
She said that the SRC has done pilot projects to make flour from local foods such as yams and breadfruit, but production on a commercial basis was impossible.
Barnett was speaking yesterday at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange meeting of reporters and editors at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue office in Kingston. Barnett was joined by SRC executives, chairman James Moss-Solomon, and general manager of SRC-subsidiary Marketech Ltd Roselyn Fisher.
The SRC makes formulas for foods and drinks from local raw materials which it sells - ranging from $25,000 to $75,000 - to agro-processors for use in commercial production.
But according to the SRC executives, larger food companies that could take immediate advantage of the formulas have, for the most part, shied away.
"We have ready takers mainly from the small and micro group, not from the large companies," Barnett declared. "We find that those [large] companies take a little time to come on board."
Alluding to a lack of participation from the private sector, Dr Barnett charged that supermarket shelves were stocked full of imported cereals that could have been produced here.
"We are saying that through the extrusion process we can make our own cereals here that are very healthy," she said, adding that the SRC has cereal mixes among the approximately 100 formulations that it has produced.
The potential for export is also being missed, according to Moss-Solomon, who argued that reticence from the larger companies was a serious problem when the timeframe for micro companies to reach an export level is taken into consideration.
In the meantime, the ackee and saltfish spread, which is available in three flavours - cheese, spicy and original - will have a tasting at the current agriculture ministerial conference at the Ritz Carlton in Montego Bay.
By PATRICK FOSTER Observer writer [email protected]
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
AS Government fervently pushes its Eat What You Grow campaign, the Scientific Research Council (SRC) is lamenting that there are no takers for many of its formulations using local raw materials, including its new ackee and saltfish spread.
SRC chairman James Moss-Solomon makes a point at yesterday's Observer Monday Exchange.
In addition, while there is a drive to produce more tubers to substitute for imported carbohydrates, SRC executive director Dr Audia Barnett yesterday said that there is no facility here to process flour using local tubers.
The Jamaica Flour Mills, the island's only flour producer located at Rockfort in Kingston, converts flour from imported wheat.
"A major bottleneck is having a facility to make flour from our local tubers, it does not exist," Barnett remarked.
"If we had a major facility, then the sky is the limit. we have done several things but that is a bottleneck."
She said that the SRC has done pilot projects to make flour from local foods such as yams and breadfruit, but production on a commercial basis was impossible.
Barnett was speaking yesterday at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange meeting of reporters and editors at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue office in Kingston. Barnett was joined by SRC executives, chairman James Moss-Solomon, and general manager of SRC-subsidiary Marketech Ltd Roselyn Fisher.
The SRC makes formulas for foods and drinks from local raw materials which it sells - ranging from $25,000 to $75,000 - to agro-processors for use in commercial production.
But according to the SRC executives, larger food companies that could take immediate advantage of the formulas have, for the most part, shied away.
"We have ready takers mainly from the small and micro group, not from the large companies," Barnett declared. "We find that those [large] companies take a little time to come on board."
Alluding to a lack of participation from the private sector, Dr Barnett charged that supermarket shelves were stocked full of imported cereals that could have been produced here.
"We are saying that through the extrusion process we can make our own cereals here that are very healthy," she said, adding that the SRC has cereal mixes among the approximately 100 formulations that it has produced.
The potential for export is also being missed, according to Moss-Solomon, who argued that reticence from the larger companies was a serious problem when the timeframe for micro companies to reach an export level is taken into consideration.
In the meantime, the ackee and saltfish spread, which is available in three flavours - cheese, spicy and original - will have a tasting at the current agriculture ministerial conference at the Ritz Carlton in Montego Bay.
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