Interest growing in cassava industry

Barbados’ growing cassava industry has caught the attention of retailers in the United States and Israel.

This was disclosed by the Divisional Head of Agricultural Services at the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), Paul Waithe, during the launch of the Corporation’s Crop Value Chain Services on Wednesday.

He said that there has been a good response to the locally-produced cassava products, including flour, bread, cake and porridge mixes, and sorbet, which retail at BADMC’s Carmeta’s shops, as well as other select locations.

Barbados bakery officially launches cassava bread https://t.co/ApJ5pqahJj pic.twitter.com/dMSrlsP9fm

— CARICOM (@CARICOMorg) September 10, 2016

Mr. Waithe said they are pleased with the interest shown, but noted that local producers must be able to meet commercial demand.

It is against this background that he revealed that the BADMC needed financial assistance in order to assemble a cassava processing mill, which was recently purchased from Columbia.  The mill is capable of producing an average of 3000 pounds of flour from 10,000 pounds of cassava per day.

Read more at: Barbados Government Information Service