Plantains hit the market

Date: Mon 25-Oct-1993
Paper Page: 12
Publication: Daily Nation

THE PLANTAIN has been silently making a statement as another viable, non-sugar food crop in the local market.

Halton Plantation, renowned for its banana production, is one of the growers which is supplying the consumer with plantains or a regular basis.

Manager of the estate Robin Watson said the commodity was being marketed under the brand name of Ready-Ripe and Halton has managed to supply all the supermarkets as well as some individual vendors.

However, unlike the situation with bananas, Watson said Barbados is far from being self-sufficient in plantains.

"We are still not growing enough; a lot are still being imported," he said.

He said farmers were being encouraged to grow plantains even though they are low-priced food.

"You can get a good profit on them. We had a very low mark-up on our plantains but we sold a good volume and we got back our profit," the farmer said.

Watson said plantains were an easily-grown crop but irrigation is needed. He pointed out however, that the problem was really with financing.

"It is very difficult to get money for agriculture. It is easy to talk but it all comes back to what farmers said years ago: the authorities have to decide if they are going to subsidise agriculture or not -- no matter the crop that is grown," Watson explained.

Halton Plantation also makes plantain chips using all local products. In late July, the company exported its first batch of chips to Antigua, Grenada and St. Vincent. So far Halton has exported 15 000 packs of plantain chips to the islands. On the other hand, Watson said Barbados is virtually self-sufficient in bananas. He said Halton has increased its acreage and is now growing 21 acres of the fruit. He said Halton has almost double its staff.