Hierland Peter picks up a packet of freeze-dried breadfruit slices from the counter of the agro-processing plant where his team works. It is the product he has been working on for the past six years.
He places three slices into a bowl and adds warm water to show how it works. Over 15 minutes, the slices go from a pale cream colour to the familiar yellow of the beloved fruit. A taste test confirms it tastes just like regular breadfruit.
Using agro-processing technology, Peter developed a method to extend breadfruit’s shelf life, turning it from a July-to-September seasonal crop into a packaged product that, he says, has a 14-year shelf life while retaining its nutritional value and taste.
In theory, the idea sounds simple. But in an interview with the St. Lucia Times, Peter says it required unimaginable dedication, time, money, and tenacity.
Peter had an early knack for entrepreneurship. After school, he tried theatre production before exploring other ideas. He jokes that his relationship with food was meant to be, since his birthday falls on World Food Day. It started with ideas around plantain-based products before he noticed another market gap emerging.
“I would hear people say how they love their breadfruit and ‘I wish I could get breadfruit abroad’. They would get breadfruit, slice it, precook it, wrap it in clean wrap, and travel with it and I would be like ‘that’s madness’, why do you have a breadfruit in your suitcase?”
When he saw that pattern, the wheels began to turn. Pre-cooked, clean-wrapped breadfruit still had a short shelf life.
In 2020, he began consulting agricultural experts and researching whether solutions already existed, but no comparable products were on the market.
His determination to find his own solution eventually led him to freeze-drying, a method commonly used in the food and pharmaceutical industries, but one he saw as largely untapped in Saint Lucia and the wider Caribbean.
Freeze-drying removes moisture from food at low temperatures through a process called sublimation. When properly processed and packaged, the method can help preserve the original flavour, texture and nutrients of fruits and vegetables.
But the discovery would unearth a host of challenges as he worked to transform a problem-solving idea into reality.
“The money to get the equipment and the space needed was in the tens of thousands of dollars, and I just didn’t have that…Even importing is adding another layer of cost and the business environment can be very challenging in Saint Lucia. It can be demotivating, but I was like, ‘hey, I want to do this’; I want to make my future self proud.”
Peter then put together a two- to three-year progress plan. While still working full-time in banking, he set a budget and looked for business grants to help fund his project.
After years of testing different versions and flavours, he settled on a formula that works.
The freeze-dried, packaged slices of breadfruit can now be rehydrated and used in stews, soups and other dishes. Distribution is starting small, with the product available at the Fond Latisab Creole Park and Massy Gourmet.
Peter says he welcomes feedback and is already working on similar ventures.
He reflected: “It’s just interesting to see the 2020 version of Hierland having an idea and 2026, years later, having my product at the supermarket.”
Offering a word of advice to other Saint Lucians looking to create solutions while braving a daunting business environment, he said, “I want to encourage any entrepreneur who has a dream to continue pushing on despite what anyone says.”
“People told me, ‘Heirland, you sure you want to do that, my boy? You’re spending so much money’ but I told them, ‘This is what I believe in’. I saw that I could solve a problem in and outside of Saint Lucia, and I pushed forward.”
