Caribbean Knowledge Exchange

In August 2026, under USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Award 2023-33610-40543 “Overcoming Risks to Fully Commercialize Breadfruit Manufacturing and Marketing Through a Cooperative Framework to Support Small, Diversified Farmers,” Hawaii Ulu Cooperative engaged in a knowledge exchange with two breadfruit manufacturers in Puerto Rico and one in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Facility and farm visits included open-ended interviews to explore the following technical objectives, questions and tasks:

Technical Objective 2: Increase efficiency, quality, and capacity of “wet” process line to support manufacturing of 500,000 pounds of frozen breadfruit per year.

Guiding question 2(a): What are the optimal steaming and blast chilling

technologies to support targeted frozen breadfruit production volumes?

Task 4 – Technical Objective 2 / Sub-question 2a: Identify optimal steaming and blast chilling technologies to process 500,000 pounds of frozen breadfruit per year.

Technical Objective 3: Increase efficiency, quality, and capacity of “dry” process line to support manufacturing of 500,000 pounds of breadfruit flour per year.

Guiding question 3(a): What is the optimal dehydration technology to support

targeted breadfruit flour production volumes?

Task 7 – Technical Objective 3 / Sub-question 3a: Identify optimal dehydration technologies to process 500,000 pounds of breadfruit flour per year.

Two manufacturing companies were identified in Puerto Rico to conduct the knowledge exchange with: Wonderen Foods in Mayaguez for frozen processing, and Amasar in Jayuya for dry processing. In St. Croix, Mutiny Island Vodka utilizes breadfruit flour to distill a high-end alcohol, and is currently exploring options to support development of locally grown and milled breadfruit flour from the US Virgin Islands for use in some of its products.

As our cooperative works toward processing 500,000 pounds of fresh fruit annually, learning from established operations across the Caribbean offers valuable blueprints and cautionary insights for our growers here in Hawaiʻi.

Shared Regional Foundations

Despite geographic separation, Hawaiʻi, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands operate in remarkably similar agricultural environments:

Colonial & Plantation Legacies: All three island systems transitioned through historical plantation agriculture (primarily sugarcane) and today import 85% to over 95% of their total food supply.
Cultural & Climate Alignment: Breadfruit (pana in Puerto Rico, ʻulu in Hawaiʻi) serves as a traditional staple food and a cornerstone for climate-resilient agroforestry.
Infrastructure Challenges: High utility tariffs, limited industrial food infrastructure, and exposure to major tropical storm events present shared hurdles for post-harvest handling.

Processing Models & Case Studies

Frozen Pana Processing: Wonderen Foods / Panawest

Located in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Wonderen Foods was founded by Juan Carlos Rodriguez to supply value-added frozen breadfruit products.

Outputs: Processes approximately 30,000 pounds of raw fruit per year sourced from 12 local farms.
Manufacturing Line: Features semi-automated peeling, slicing, blanching, flash-frying, vacuum-sealing, and metal detection.
Key Takeaway: Semi-automation allows small-scale facilities to maintain strict quality control and extended shelf life without requiring multi-million-dollar processing lines.

Flour & Dry Processing: Amasar

Operating out of a 2,000-square-foot facility in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, Amasar was established by Marisol Villalobos and Jesus Martes.

Outputs: Handles roughly 100,000 pounds of fruit annually from a network of 30 growers.
Operational Workflow: Incoming fruit undergoes washing, hand-chopping, mechanical shredding, 14-hour cabinet drying at regulated temperatures, hammermilling, and clean-room packaging.
Certifications: Holds Certified B Corporation status, Certified Gluten-Free, Non-GMO Project Verified, and Caribbean Kosher certifications to access high-value specialty markets.
Secondary Agritourism: Hosts weekly factory and farm tours to cultivate consumer education and direct-to-consumer sales.

Spirit Distillation: Mutiny Island Vodka

Based in St. Croix (USVI), Mutiny Island Vodka utilizes breadfruit flour as its primary fermentable substrate.

Supply Sourcing: Currently utilizes ~21,000 pounds of imported breadfruit flour annually from Indonesia due to limited local supply, while actively partnering with Caribbean organizations to establish local sourcing and flour milling facilities.

Comparative Regional Economics

Economic realities shape processing feasibility and fruit pay-prices for farmers across territories:

Economic Parameter	HUC	Puerto Rico	St. Croix (USVI)
Minimum Wage	$16.00 / hr	$10.50 / hr ($7.25 / hr agri.)	$12.00 / hr
Electricity Cost	42 – 52 ¢ / kWh	21 – 30 ¢ / kWh	39 – 47 ¢ / kWh
Grade A Raw Fruit Price	~$1.40 / lb	$0.33 – $0.35 / lb	N/A
Retail Flour Price	~$10.00 / lb	~$4.00 / lb ($11.49 / 24 oz)	N/A
Food Import Reliance	~85%	~85%	>95%

Flour Composition: Skin-On vs. Peeled

Our exchange evaluated the nutritional and functional differences between Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Co-op’s whole-fruit (skin-on) flour and Amasar’s peeled flour:

Parameter (30g serving)	Whole-Fruit Flour (HUC)	Peeled Flour (Amasar)
Calories	110
Fat / Sodium	0g / 0mg
Total Carbohydrate	27g (10% DV)
Dietary Fiber	3g (11% DV)
Potassium	440mg (10% DV)
Glycemic Index	49.2 (Low GI)

Note: Processing whole fruit with the skin intact preserves higher fiber yield during milling while reducing labor costs associated with manual peeling.

Agronomic & Pest Management Warnings

The exchange highlighted severe orchard health threats that require vigilant biosecurity measures in Hawaiʻi:

Mango Stem Borer Beetle (St. Croix): A major pest infestation has devastated breadfruit orchards in St. Croix, causing an estimated 80% tree loss at Ridge to Reef Farm.
The beetle cuts a strip in the bark to lay her eggs, and eats all parts of the tree fruit, bark leaves, and even branch tips. The first sign of infestation is usually along the midrib of the leaf, which the beetle chews and ultimately punctures, causing the leaf to bend over in the middle while still on the tree.
Animal Damage & Land Access: St. Croix producers report widespread bark-chewing damage from wild deer populations. In Puerto Rico, high agricultural land prices ($25,000/acre post-Hurricane Maria), farmer outmigration, and rising synthetic fertilizer costs restrict orchard expansion.

Strategic Next Steps for Our Cooperative

To apply these findings, the Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Producers Cooperative is advancing several strategic initiatives:

Sharing equipment and processing best practices: Wonderen Foods, Amasar and Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Co-op all buy a lot of equipment from China, where it can be made relatively inexpensively and some processors are familiar with breadfruit. Sharing which equipment makes and models have worked and which havenʻt, as well as which suppliers to order from, would help save time and investment by leveraging each otherʻs experience to help the whole group. Because the companies are not competing directly with the same products or market geographies, there is no harm in helping each other out. Also, if partners coordinate their purchases from the same equipment suppliers, they may be able to leverage their collective buying power to ask for new types of equipment or customizations and better pricing through bulk orders, and support each other with troubleshooting support and possibly even spare parts when mechanical issues arise.

Joint marketing and consumer education: In the broader society, breadfruit is still an unknown, underutilized crop. Co-investing in public awareness campaigns and sharing whatʻs worked from marketing efforts could help elevate public awareness and grow the market for all. There may be USDA grants available to help develop joint Caribbean/Pacific specialty crop promotion.

Coordinate farmer support efforts through farmer organizations: Across all three regions, small and relatively low-capacity farmers make up the majority of the supply chain. Such farmers need support organizations to help inform agronomic research, disseminate technical assistance, and provide continuous education and outreach. Rather than tackling this in silos, Hawaiʻi, Puerto Rico and the USVIs could share farmer resources and leverage USDA funding to advance efforts that support small breadfruit growers more broadly. This may best be achieved through collaborations across farmer organizations (e.g. Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Co-op, Agropana, VIFA).

Build a regional / global breadfruit community: Breadfruit is still a tiny, nascent industry in the grand scheme of things, and value-added producers and farmers have much to gain by strengthening relationships with and awareness of each other. Marisolʻs vision for this is development of a global breadfruit community that shares common values, collaborates, and is visually represented as a single breadfruit – each organization making up one cell of the whole fruit.

Coordinated value chain development: At some point, each islandʻs supply may saturate its local demand; for now, however, supply and demand are not always in balance and the two fluctuate dynamically as the industry grows. Hawaiʻi, Puerto Rico and St. Croix may have future opportunities to trade value-added breadfruit products with each other, if they can coordinate quality standards and processing procedures, and also find a way to reduce shipping costs (e.g. by lobbying to dismantle the Jones Act). They may also be able to coordinate export efforts, such that Hawaiʻi supplies the west coast of the U.S. and Asia, and the Caribbean supplies the rest of the U.S. and Europe. Geographically, this would maximize transport efficiencies through shorter shipping routes. Such supply chain coordination may involve development of a unified brand that centers small, diversified farmers as the bearers of breadfruit to the rest of the world. This idea came up independently from multiple stakeholders in both Puerto Rico and St. Croix.