Celebrity chef and author of the award-winning cookbook Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific, Robert Oliver, was building organic menus in Vanuatu earlier this year through the Farm to Table project.

Mr Oliver with chefs of Breakas Beach Resort in Port Vila developed various recipes for main dishes, salads and desserts, based on the organic crop offerings of the island.

Some sample recipes include taro leaf soup made from diced breadfruit, cooking bananas and green taro leaves, tuna carpaccio salad, and a pineapple split with coconut caramel.

Creating organic recipes for the tourist market builds demand for organic crop supplies from the local community, and fosters a ‘farm to table’ supply chain that allows young people to earn an income through organic farming.

Breakas’s Food and Beverage Manager, Roy Earnst, said the recipes are featured on the resort’s special menus.

‘Our biggest problem is getting organic food products. When we do have it we are able to create the recipes’, Mr Earnst said.

The project is a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the Pacific Community’s Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community (POETCom), and is funded by the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG-F).

POETCom Project Manager, Osea Rasea, said that young people can earn a lucrative income through organic farming, but supplies need to be maintained.

‘With the formalisation of value chains that link the agriculture and the tourism sector, niche opportunities are created, especially with organic certification,’ said Mr Rasea.

‘These innovative approaches of marketing organic farm produce go to address the image of farming in particular – that it is a lucrative enterprise negating perceptions of hard, dirty work with minimal returns’, Mr Rasea added.

He said it was imperative more youths be encouraged to take up farming as a source of livelihood because of the aging farming population, and the risks that presents to food and nutritional security in the Pacific Islands region.

‘Who is going to grow our food if we are all working in towns and cities?,’ questioned Mr Rasea.

Mr Oliver will work with two Vanuatu enterprises to develop a menu that complies with the Pacific Organic Tourism and Hospitality Standard (POTHS). The menu will include a minimum of three organic dishes, including an entrée, a main and a dessert.

He will work with chefs to develop recipes that are culturally relevant, utilise locally-available organic ingredients, and which can be replicated.

Mr Oliver will endeavour to build relationships between chefs and local organic producers, including young producers directly involved in the Farm to Table project.

The staff of both enterprises will also be trained in documenting procedures, taking photos, and budgeting the cost of recipes, as is required for a menu that is compliant with POTHS.

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