Pushing local produce

Some 20 hotels and restaurants have given commitments to participate in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) Agriculture Project, which will see those hotels and restaurants engaging the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) Packaging Facility in trade of local produce.

That’s according to the Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Senator Rudy Grant. The CEO says they want to see that number of hospitality entities increase even more, as it is a project that can result in the saving of valuable foreign exchange through greater use of local produce. Moreover, he said it has significant potential and benefits for the farmers, helping to boost their business and can make the linkage between the tourism and agriculture sectors stronger.

Grant, in his presentation to the BHTA’s membership recently, said that while formal purchasing arrangement have been established in the short-term, a more long-term arrangement for supply is required to ensure consistent supply.

“The BADMC has a packhouse and we have been working with them. A number of farmers have been supplying to the packhouse, you would see that the number has increased from 80 to 220. There is a traceability framework that is in place to ensure that they are able to identify which farm the products come from and which farmer, to ensure that the produce is good produce and that the produce would have been facilitated in the legitimate manner,” he added.

Grant added, “There have been a number of products which have been recorded in terms of the amounts, making sure that the packaging is right, the quality is right and that the pricing is right.”

Meanwhile, touching on the 2018 Taste of the Caribbean Culinary Competition, which was held in Miami in June, he said although the Barbados team did not secure any gold medals it was nonetheless a good performance from the young team which captured six silver medals and two bronze.

“The team does have the potential to grow and develop we will be working with the team again to prepare them for Taste of the Caribbean 2019 and we are confident that the performance next year will be better than the performance this year,” he stated.

Grant made the point as he said they are looking to utilise local chefs even more, as one of Barbados’ competitive advantages is our cuisine. He said with the boast that Barbados is the culinary capital of the Caribbean, every effort must be made to ensure our chefs get maximum exposure.

“As you know our visitors are requesting more authentic experiences and more authentic exposure and we can with our cuisine, ensure that we are able to give our visitors more of a Barbadian flare,” he added. (JRT)