(Antigua Sun) The local importer of flour from Guyana, Gloria Joseph, said that two technicians will be on the island next week to advise bakers in one-on-one demonstrations on the ways to use the new flour.
The availability of these technicians has come as a result of a prominent local baker’s vocal criticisms of the flour’s quality saying it is more suited to making roti and not bread.
In response, the Managing Director of the National Milling Company of Guyana Inc. (Namilco) Bert Sukhai said he will send two technicians to advise the bakers first-hand how to work the flour, which the mill has admitted is different.
Joseph said the technicians from the United States and Germany, where the wheat to make the flour is grown, will be on island from Thursday to Saturday and will be making visits to bakers throughout the days.
Interested bakers are to contact Joseph at 562-2891 to be added to the list. There is no cost attached to the visits.
Joseph said, “It is a very rich flour and it has a special way to handle it. Once you get a new flour you have to adjust to it.” She said they would have had to go through a similar process with flour from St. Vincent.
On hearing about the visits, spokesperson of the Antigua and Barbuda Bakers’ Association Patrick Colbourne said the initiative is welcome. He said, “We haven’t written off anything or anybody, we just need to go the extra length to actually get things worked out the best way possible.”
Defending the quality of the flour, Joseph said it is ‘real’ flour and added that it is not over-bleached, which is done with chemicals to produce the ‘white’ associated with flour. Joseph said that the nutrients have been stripped from this type of flour.
She said the majority of bakers have tried the flour and have not made any negative comments. Responding to the criticisms, she said, “A baker who cannot really work the flour is not really a baker. It’s just like a mason; you have people who will be able to do certain things really good and others who do things ugly. Everybody can say they are a baker, but it doesn’t mean they can do it perfectly.”
She said sales have been good so far as the bakers have been taking a certain amount and replenishing when they are out.
She speculated that it might mean that they might still be moving between using the flour from St. Vincent and the new one from Guyana. “It is a case where they have a choice of getting a cheaper and better flour.”
