Overseas markets have a growing appetite for breadfruits from Barbados, and Barbadians are being urged to cash in on the interest.
This was reiterated by Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) chief executive officer Mark Hill, who said his organisation had received an order for 2 000 breadfruits on Monday.
Hill told the Estimates Debate in the House of Assembly that while this item was being sold in Barbados supermarkets for $3.50 each, “that same breadfruit is selling in Canada for CAN$20; it is selling in Britain for £15”.
“We got an order for 2 000 breadfruits, so if there is anybody in your constituency that has a breadfruit tree you can please get them to contact us,” Hill told Members of Parliament during the afternoon session.
“The demand for breadfruit from Barbados, the Bajan breadfruit, is so big. Right now we are doing around 10 000 [kilogrammes] a week in breadfruit and we cannot find enough breadfruits, so if there are persons in communities there is a website that is available,” he said.
“You can go on there [and] you can register your breadfruit tree and once we see it registered there, somebody comes out and analyse how much fruit you have forecast to come into the pipeline.
“There are [buyers] in Canada, America and England that are ready to buy that breadfruit that is growing on your tree. So you don’t even have to sell the breadfruit; the breadfruit is already sold even before it finish grow.”
Hill said this was an example that “there is more opportunity in that export space and we therefore want to cultivate a culture of exports, foster a mindset of exports among our entrepreneurs and our enterprises”. (SC)
I have a breadfruit tree