70 November 2016 - Business View Caribbean
lectual property we create, export-ready – something
that Barbados can sell anywhere in the world.”
The Food Innovation Units of BADMC’s Agribusiness
Division currently produces the Carmeta family of
gluten-free flours, flour mixes, baked goods, desserts,
and seasoned meats which exclusively feature local-
ly-sourced agricultural produce - primarily cassava,
sweet potato, breadfruit, beef, pork, and black belly
lamb - as their main ingredients. “We realize that the
gluten-free market is a burgeoning market across the
globe and so we focused there, utilizing our locally-
grown cassava, breadfruit, and sweet potato,” King
explains. “We also have a gluten-free pork sausage.
This has a value chain benefit for our farmers in that
we’re taking produce that is produced here, that would
normally be sold on the fresh market which can be ex-
tremely competitive and prone to gluts and scarcity,
and creating some stability there and the opportunity
to gain contracts. Let me give you an example. We’ve
taken regular cassava and we have developed prod-
ucts including cassava cheese cake, cassava sponge
cake - we’ve even developed a cassava sorbet that
contains no milk and it’s made from cassava flour. It’s
dairy-free and gluten-free and lactose-free and still
has great taste. It’s high in fiber, high in potassium.”
“These are products that have never existed any-
where,” she continues. “No one else in the world has
ever produced them. So, whether we commercialize a
product, locally, in partnership with a food manufac-
turer, or we’re able to sell that commercial formulation
and license it, or just sell it, outright to a global food
producer overseas, we see ourselves contributing to
the economy - not only in terms of revitalizing produc-
tivity within the non-sugar, agricultural sub-sectors,
but also creating valuable intellectual property that we
can market, internationally.”
In order to better carry out is various functions, BADMC
