Caribbean Organic Foodstuff Promises Cheaper, Better Flour

Caribbean International Brewery is shaking things up again, this time, not with drinks, but with flour. The company just rolled out its newest product, Mana Flour, aiming to carve out a spot in a market dominated by big names for decades. Shane Williams stopped by the factory to see how a business that started selling bottled water only six years ago is now going head-to-head with industry giants.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

They started small, just bottled water back in 2019 with their first product, H2O Drinking Water. Fast forward two years, and Caribbean International Brewery made waves with Pirate Beer, taking aim at the contraband market in northern Belize. Since then, the company hasn’t slowed down. They’ve branched into snacks and everyday staples, and now they’re making another bold move. Through their subsidiary, Caribbean Organic Foodstuff, they’ve launched Mana Flour, a product they say will be more affordable than many of the brands already on store shelves.

 

Fortunato Noble, Communications Director, Caribbean Organic Foodstuff

“Per hundred-pound sack of flour, you can pay between seventy-nine to eighty-five dollars per hundred pound sack. Now, that is actually comparable to eleven percent or a little over eleven percent less than the mandated price that government – the control price, sorry. So it is cheaper and it is high quality flour.”

 

With Mana Flour hitting Belizean shelves, the opportunities are wide open. History is full of examples of companies that paid the price for failing to adapt and innovate. Caribbean Organic Foodstuff is looking at every product Belize imports. Producing these goods locally doesn’t just create jobs and save foreign exchange, it also strengthens the nation’s food security.

 

Fortunato Noble

“We are not done. It’s this is a continuous planning process. When we sat down in 2023 to see what can be done and the flour came up. We started with noodles. We know we import a lot of noodles every year. And then we have the cooking oil was coming on. We have biscuits, we have snacks. We have a lot of things that are imported. We want to move towards that. We want to, to employs produce our own food right here in Belize.”

 

That objective fits seamlessly with the administration’s overall master plan. Prime Minister John Briceno went straight from the airport on his return home to Mana’s ribbon cutting. His presence at the event signals strong government backing. The company’s newest project employs over a hundred workers, mostly women.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“You hiring people, creating opportunities, creating jobs for people and having other people, then investing in other services that can support the work that you do or your investment. For us, that is a success. But then I add, I said, when you come to Belize, don’t think Belize, think Mexico, think Central America, think the Caribbean. The Caribbean and Central America is an economy of approximately four hundred billion dollars. And when you add the amount of people that live between Mexico and Central America and the Caribbean, you’re looking probably close to two hundred million. And we have been working with our neighbors with Mexico, opening up markets in Mexico so that we then can produce and sell into Mexico.”

 

Caribbean Organic Foodstuff is proving it’s thinking beyond Belize. Mana flour has already hit shelves in Northern Belize and will soon be available countrywide. However, with a significant investment in a state-of-the-art mill, they are looking beyond the local market.

 

Fortunato Noble

“This is a modern flower production facility. And it’s capable of milling 150 tons, metric tons of flour per day. We are fully capable of supplying the Belize market and also complimenting or sending out to the export market as well. We are speaking with some partners in the Caribbean to see what are the possibilities of exporting mana flour and not just manna flour or noodles and the cooking oil. There are people who have shown interest in some of these products. So we are in communication and in negotiation with some of them.”

 

Shane Williams for News Five.