RADA Developing Exciting New Products from Tamarind

The Social Service and Home Economics Department of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is currently involved in the production of a number of by-products of locally grown tamarind.
In an interview with JIS News Acting Manager of Social Service and Home Economics at RADA, Beverly Darby-Collins, said the idea for developing tamarind-based products emerged from the thrust to diversify the skills and earning potential of rural women well, as well as to facilitate marketing opportunities for farmers.
She explained that at first the project was centered on the production of tamarind balls but had now evolved to include the production of table and hot pepper sauces.
“Having looked at the parts of the tamarind that comes off after making the tamarind balls, we thought that we should find a secondary product that we could use that material to make, we started doing trials and we came up with the tamarind table sauce,” she informed.
In order to begin commercial production of the table and hot pepper sauces, a facility is now being constructed on the grounds of the RADA office in St. Thomas.
According to the Acting Manager, the hot pepper sauce though somewhat different from the tamarind sauce, would have tamarind as its main ingredient.
Commenting on the marketability of the commodities, she noted that sauces in general now had a lucrative market both locally and internationally, and that those being developed by the Department could be used as a base for other products.
Last year, RADA began production of a prune substitute made from otaheite apples. In addition to being a substitute for prunes, the product can also be used instead of raisins and currants, in recipes.