{"id":12223,"date":"2011-09-26T09:04:47","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T13:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=12223"},"modified":"2011-09-28T09:23:08","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T13:23:08","slug":"new-opportunities-in-food-processing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2011\/09\/new-opportunities-in-food-processing","title":{"rendered":"New Opportunities In Food Processing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
North Andros High School is getting their seedlings ready for the winter season. Pictured from left are agriculture teacher Rai Budhu, BAIC assistant general manager (agriculture) Arnold Dorsett, and IICA Bahamas representative Dr. Marikis Alvarez. (BIS Photo\/Gladstone Thurston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation and the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture are providing opportunities for Bahamians to explore food processing.<\/p>\n

And, BAIC executive chairman Edison M. Key, addressing the Abaco Business Outlook, urged Bahamians to tap into the estimated $500 million in food products being imported into The Bahamas each year.<\/p>\n

Food scientist, Mrs Donna Bromfield, secretary of the Jamaica Food Processors Association, addressed food processors in Eleuthera and Andros last weekend.<\/p>\n

She was accompanied by BAIC\u2019s senior food processing officer Tonjia Burrows, IICA Bahamas representative Dr. Marikis Alvarez, BAIC general manager Benjamin Rahming, and assistant general manager (agriculture) Arnold Dorsett.<\/p>\n

She also met North Andros High School principal Therese Curry and her team with a view to reinforcing the food processing programme there.<\/p>\n

North Andros High, situated in Nicholl\u2019s Town, has one of the best agriculture programmes in the pubic education system.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Bromfield, also a food safety specialist, visited at the invitation of BAIC and IICA.<\/p>\n

IICA is the specialised agency of the Inter-American System for the promotion of agriculture and rural well-being, with efforts focused on making agriculture competitive and sustainable.<\/p>\n

It was noted that a large amount of fruits and vegetables go to waste each year in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is always an abundant supply of food and nobody knows what to do to preserve it,\u201d said Mrs. Bromfield. \u201cSo the whole matter of post harvest is a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pointed out that in Eleuthera persons had taken on food preservation in various ways. One lady had about 30 products, but they were not on the international market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to help them with best practices, and proper procedures but they need a processing facility more than anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go into the US market they are going to want to know where the goods are coming from and the source so they can trace it back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn accordance with the US Food Safety Modernisation Act these things cannot go onto the US market unless best practices are in place,\u201d said Mrs. Bromfield.<\/p>\n

She agreed that opportunities are in place for Bahamians in food processing by way of import substitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potential is definitely there,\u201d she said. \u201cBahamian mangoes, for example, go to waste and you import mangoes. There are a lot of imported tomato products on the supermarket shelves and tomatoes are going to waste in The Bahamas so we can definitely reduce that import bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already plans are being drawn up for Mrs. Bromfield to conduct food processing seminars and workshops.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been a great help in the few days she has been with us,\u201d said Mrs. Burrows. \u201cI look forward to us doing many projects together on a very long term basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of Mrs. Bromfield\u2019s visit was the formation of a North Andros food processors group headed by Annamae Rolle of Nicholl\u2019s Town. She will work with North Andros High\u2019s food processing teacher Ann Rolle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe agreed that more can be achieved as a unit as opposed to processors going at it alone by themselves,\u201d said Mrs. Burrows.<\/p>\n

BAIC\u2019s Food Processing Unit has been conducting a series of Family Island training courses on value-adding products \u2013 fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n

As head of the Unit, Mrs. Burrows has trained in Jamaica, Belize and China.<\/p>\n

By Gladstone Thurston
\nBahamas Information Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation and the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture are providing opportunities for Bahamians to explore food processing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[72,23],"class_list":["post-12223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-employment","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}