A breadfruit workshop at the Hafadai Beach Hotel on Friday brought together dozens of island leaders to learn about the potential of breadfruit as a growing commercial product, a source of nutrition, a tie to island culture, and a staple for food security in the Pacific.<\/p>\n
A visiting team of experts from the University of Hawaii\u2019s Pacific Development Center Team led talks on the growing demand for breadfruit products from the Pacific and gave the crowd an inside look into the process of making breadfruit flour.<\/p>\n
The workshop continued into Saturday at the NMC campus.<\/p>\n
Gov. Eloy S. Inos created the CNMI Breadfruit Initiative in 2013 to work with PDCT in developing the potential and capacity of breadfruit locally. The task force is made up of CNMI leaders, Northern Marianas College-CREES, and the Commonwealth Development Authority. It is based on the principles of commercialization, nutrition, and food security.<\/p>\n
The initiative\u2019s point man and project manager, Ivan Blanco, said that PDCT presented a regional and national network that the CNMI could tap into. These include milling, propagation, product development, intellectual property right, agroforestry, disaster management and food security, and community capacity experts, among others.<\/p>\n
Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), who was named to the initiative when he was still Commerce secretary, commended the \u201cbackground work already done\u201d by PDCT that made the project attractive from the get go.<\/p>\n
This includes an inventory of species, and science that evaluated this, as well as an understanding of custom, culture, and tradition in regards to the breadfruit, on top of a direction to go in terms of marketing.<\/p>\n
But what people really felt, Igisomar said, was the \u201csustainability\u201d part of the project. \u201cAt the end you really help the people out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very smart of them to provide the vehicle already. They got the vehicle and came to us and said this is what we have. All it really required next was partnership and commitment. And I think that\u2019s from there we clicked\u2026 it\u2019s really too good to ignore and give up. Everybody has breadfruit\u2026the entire Pacific ocean has it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
PCDT\u2019s Kalani Souza said they are \u201ctaking the health route\u201d with this product.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to make a 100-percent gluten-free product. We think we can do that through a combination of natural products that are here [like] coconut flour, cassava flour with breadfruit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
PCDT\u2019s Craig Evelitch hopes the project drives local businesses that target local markets like hotels and restaurants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll develop interesting products that will show more and more potential. Some of them will be winners; some of them will be losers but that innovation will drive further product development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Souza added that rarely is there an economic development that includes the entire spectrum of the population. \u201cIt\u2019s just not the domain of a corporation with 10,000 trees. A family with four trees can also participate in this economic model by selling their food for X amount per pound or making their own unique product that they sell roadside or at a farmer\u2019s market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This model is a \u201cnew look,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see local economies flourish,\u201d Evelitch echoed. \u201cWe want to see reconnection with the traditional foods that are healthy and serve not only people\u2019s nutrition but cultural connection to this place, to their ancestors,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a renaissance of traditional foods. And we are at a time where it\u2019s actually feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaitu Erasito, breadfruit research officer of the Pacific Breadfruit Project in Fiji, has been working on the \u201coldest and most advanced project\u201d in commercial breadfruit over the last five years, according to Eveltich.<\/p>\n
He told Saipan Tribune of the breadfruit\u2019s role in a community\u2019s resilience to natural or man-made disasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Fiji, we just had the biggest cyclone, the strongest cyclone I\u2019ve come across. It happened during the night. In the morning when we looked outside\u2014there was nothing. All the big trees have no leaves, all land was flat\u2026Straight after the cyclone, we experienced flood. We were not ready for it. This is climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we experienced drought in the western region\u2026But the good thing was\u2014after the cyclone, after flood, after the drought\u2014there was people going to breadfruit tree and harvesting. We were running to the mountain, with long poles [and] taking it back to the family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His advice to farmers it to \u201ckeep on planting.\u201d From the original 50 trees his project started with, in three years, they have planted 2,650 trees, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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