Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances Limited, CFF, has added a new product targeted at the baked-goods market across the region.
The company, which received its first batch of enzymes and emulsions late last year, is already pitching the product to local bakeries. Simultaneously, Caribbean Flavours is looking to Guyana as the first regional market outside its home to deepen trade in the bakery sector.
Caribbean Flavours, a member of the Derrimon Trading Group, largely supplies flavourings to the beverage industry, including syrup makers. It also sells fragrances as raw material for the making of sanitisation products and essential oils.
The company does some amount of business in the bakery market through its flavourings portfolio but said that the addition of the new product line is significant enough to classify the segment as a new portfolio.
“One of our large suppliers acquired an international company that sold these products, and so we’ve decided to purchase some of these products to serve as additional offerings to our customers in the baking industry. The line of products, which include enzymes and emulsions, is known to improve baked products,” General Manager Janice Lee told the Financial Gleaner.
Bakery enzymes are used as flour additives and in dough conditioners to replace chemical ingredients. In baking, enzymes are used to produce products of consistent quality by enabling better dough handling, providing fat-repellent properties, and controlling crumb texture, colour, taste, moisture, and volume.
Meanwhile, baking emulsions are a more flavourful alternative to baking extracts. Small amounts of bakery emulsion are seen as ideal for the baking process largely on the fact that they are easy to use and often yield a much tastier and more uniform result compared to using the real ingredients themselves. Bakery emulsion has its flavours suspended in water, unlike pure flavour extracts based on alcohol, which could result in flavours that are changed due to the alcohol’s taste.
“We are laying the foundation for the products now, so we are visiting the customers, doing development work, and testing the product to meet the needs of each of our customers,” Lee said.
“As for Guyana, we are very bullish on that market because the country is growing. The disposable income of the population is growing, businesses are growing, and we want to grow with them,” she continued.
Outside of Guyana, CFF also wants to introduce its new portfolio of products to customers in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
The company is still in discussions with a customer in Barbados for use of its sugar-reduction substitute, Flavour Fit, which was originally intended for use in beverages in Jamaica, following directives from the Jamaican Government that manufacturers were to reduce the sugar content in beverages they sell and market in schools or face higher taxes.
Regionally, Caribbean Flavours also sells its products St Kitts-Nevis, Grenada, Suriname, Canada, and the Dominican Republic and is actively working to secure market share in Cuba. The company has been vocal in its plans to triple its earnings outside of Jamaica to 30 per cent.
Lee says the company is still tallying the numbers on the new portfolio’s annual contribution to revenues.
Caribbean Flavours continued on its growth trajectory for the first quarter ending March 2023 largely on what it said were efforts to satisfy customer needs by strengthening business-development capabilities with additional personnel.
“We have added a product-development officer and continue staff training in developing their technical skills, which will be crucial as new opportunities come our way,” the company said in the preamble to the quarterly results.
For the three-month period, Caribbean Flavours’ earnings grew 27 per cent to $25 million on revenues, which also jumped 22 per cent to $212 million.
karena.bennett@gleanerjm.com
