30297: Re: 30259: Leiderman re Lyall 30285: rice-a-rama (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PM Raber <raber88@zoominternet.net>

For Haiti's agriculture to become profitable, it should find niche markets for 
many of its wonderful product.   When I go to my local grocer, I pay $3 for a 
pomegranite (Grenade).  Grenade plants are fast growing and produce in 
abundance. In Haiti they have no market value.  They are fun food that little 
kids eat.  The "Pom" version of pomegranite juice is even more costly than the 
fruit.      The Haitian mango Fransik is still the best mango around.  Nobody 
can beat the Tangerines from the Lavaneau area near Jacmel.  The only place I 
have tasted a similarly delicious tangerine was in the Jamaican Blue Mountains.

Westerners are spending a fortune on "mangosteen juice" another wonder tropical 
fruit that appears to be very similar (in taste and qualities not genus and 
species) to the Haitian Kayimit (Star Apple).  The star apple tree used to 
cover many Haitian mountains.  The Kayimit is way more nutritious than the 
mangosteen as it is very high in calcium and has up to 5 times the amount of 
protein and other nutrients.  you  can compare those fruits by going to the 
site:
www.hort.[urdue.edu/newcrop/morton/star_apple.html  or /mangosteen.html 
It would not take more than 10 year aggressively pusruing niche market for 
organic rice, organic pitimi, gluten free flours (Haitian have oodles of those 
flours from manioc, plantans etc..),   exotic fruit and juices, and "recently 
secret" leaf doctor homeopathic mixtures of soaps, teas etc.... to earn a 
dominant share of the new markets seeking untouched fruits as alternative to 
the disgusting and tasteless red apple and unripe bananas.     Add to that the 
insecticides from the Nime trees and the possibilities are endless

American are paying a fortune for the juice of a fruit from Asia (can;