16 April 2018

A major new breadfruit market and marketing study has been prepared and is now available.

The focus of this breadfruit market and marketing study has been on Fiji and to some extent
Samoa. However, the findings are relevant to the commercialization of breadfruit in all Pacific island
countries.
Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), is widely grown in the Pacific islands where it is often an integral
part of traditional agroforestry systems. For more than a decade Fiji, Tonga and Samoa have been
permitted to export fresh breadfruit to New Zealand, treated by the approved High Temperature Force
Air (HTFA) quarantine treatment for fruit flies. The quantities exported have been small and well below
market demand. Larger quantities of frozen breadfruit are exported to Australia, New Zealand and the
United States. There are substantial and immediate market opportunities to expand fresh and frozen
breadfruit export markets – however, significant marketing constraints remain.
For the future, there are major opportunities in supplying processed breadfruit products to
export markets. These markets are divided in two broad segments: the gluten/grain-free product
market; and, the market based on processing advantages potentially offered by breadfruit. However,
for these markets to be realised, raw material supply constraints have to be overcome and there needs
to be substantial capital investment and private sector involvement.
The study identifies more immediate market opportunities for processed breadfruit products on
local markets. A particular opportunity is for breadfruit flour as a substitute for imported grains,
particularly wheat flour. This large domestic market is expected to be driven by non-communicable
disease (NCD) health concerns, together with the future impact of climate increasing the relative price
of imported grains.

The study was supported by the EU-funded PAPP project and undertaken by Andrew McGregor (Koko Siga) and Kyle Stice.