Potential Market For Pacific Breadfruit Featured
Nuku'alofa, 17 June, 2017. Researchers, food scientists and marketing experts are working on a project that would see breadfruit, or ulu, become a major food export out of American Samoa.
The director of the Pacific Business Centre at the University of Hawai'i, Papalii Dr Tusi Avegalio, says breadfruit could become a big industry, given the demand for gluten free products overseas.
He says in 2015, the United States market for gluten free flour was worh 10.5 billion US dollars.
He says under the plan, other Pacific Islands would send their dried ulu to American Samoa where it would be milled into flour and then sent to the United States.
"We are already working with Fiji to take the lead. Most of these islands all grow breadfruit. Their biggest problem - no markets. So by sharing, they will be growing breadfruit, drying it and then shipping it all to Pago. And as soon as the product comes here, it enters the US market."
The director of the Pacific Business Centre at the University of Hawai'i, Papalii Dr Tusi Avegalio explained.
Source: Radio New Zealand International
