The CNMI has been looking for an industry to pair with tourism since garment manufacturing folded nearly a decade ago and a visiting expert from Hawaii said a tree crop that grows abundantly on the islands could just be the solution.
University of Hawaii Pacific Business Center Program director Dr. Tusi Avegalio said that breadfruit and one of its byproducts, breadfruit flour, can serve as a gluten-free alternative to wheat and rice that can readily be marketed not only in the U.S. mainland but throughout Asia as well.
Avegalio, or Dr. Tusi as he is more fondly called, was the Rotary Club of Saipan’s guest speaker during its weekly meeting yesterday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.
He said the breadfruit tree that commonly grows in the CNMI is called ma’afala, which is one of the most robust of over 200 species of breadfruit in the world.
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