BARNETT
"I THINK banana is almost a perfect fruit. It is quite nutritious in terms of the profile of nutrients in banana and so at Scientific Research Council (SRC) we are fortunate to have played a role and still continue to play a role both at the primary level and at the value added level.
"In terms of the primary level, we have to thank the EU through the Banana Export Company for the assistance given to SRC in the establishment of a tissue culture facility that was able to produce some thousands of banana plantlets for small farmers. It was unfortunate that we were not able to fulfill the total quota because of the (limited) facilities that we have, but we have the technology and we are presently actively seeking partners to commercialise that activity.
POSSIBILITIES FOR VALUE ADS
"In terms of value added, the SRC as part of its main mandate, looks at the agricultural industry to try and identify possibilities for value ads and not necessarily the run of the mill value added products, but something that will go beyond the obvious, something that will really have one stand up and pay attention. Having said that though, we also have to be mindful of the markets, both local and overseas. We are trying to be more and more conscious of being customer driven so we need to scope what the international market is looking for.
"The market for neutracueticals is a booming one, worldwide. Just the fruit (of the) banana is considered a nutracuetical. Nutracuetical just means that you can eat that fruit whole and, in addition to getting the regular nutritional value in terms of your bodily functions, you get some added health value.
"But in addition to that, the skin can be used for animal feed. Apart from feed, we have high value activities that are in the banana skin that we have not even begun to look at ... as a country and specifically SRC. The peel contains certain chemicals that are used in various ways for heart disease and for skin maladies etc. That is an area of possible growth in terms of using the waste of the banana.
BANANA FLOUR
"We have looked at banana flour, which may seem to not really have a place, but this flour can be used in baked products. There are several persons or a percentage of the population which is allergic to gluten, for example, so they cannot have wheat flour; banana flour can be used as a replacement. It can also be used in other value added components from the flour. We also have done banana figs, not just the regular figs but exotic figs coated with toffees, you name it. We have done sauces, like barbecue sauce using banana as the base. We have done a clarified banana juice which I think has exciting prospects because a lot of persons don't like the heaviness that banana has when they are using it as a component in their punches. So we have the clarified banana juice which there is a special procedure for that and you know the usual chips and jams.
"But we feel that because banana can be used for both the small farmers as well as large farmers, SRC can align itself to the small farmers at a community level to look at how they could get added value. (However) here is the problem and this is something that we are meeting in various other projects and things that we are working on - it is the area of supply. The SRC would look, for example, at roseapples and say boy, this is a wonderful fruit and we do these exotic products with it but then there is no base, in terms of supply base. We can develop a lot of value added for banana but right now the supply just for the chips market, which is growing on a daily basis doesn't necessarily lend itself for persons to go into other value added products.
"We have to really make a decision whether or not we are going to go down the road or coming up with other value added banana products. We find that we wanted to look at an intermediary supply industry, look at the tourist industry for example and get small farmers to do banana purees, bag in box so they can have something that can be utilised very easily in their bars and in their hotels. But as I said, if you don't have the supply base you can't do that."
DR. AUDIA BARNETT
Executive Director,
Scientific Research Council
