THE PROOF in the plantain is in the frying.
Believe it or not, people can tell the difference between a local plantain and one that comes from abroad, especially when they eat.
“A plantain grown in TT will always taste sweeter to us, because we are from this soil,” said Gerard Marquez, head chef at Our Moving Table, one of the companies in D’ Market Movers Ltd Group of companies. “If you take a plantain from the Dominican Republic or one from Miami, it would be drier. It wouldn’t be as supple or as sweet. You wouldn’t get a real nice fried plantain, where it's burnt on the outside and soft and nice on the inside and if you eat it too hot it will stick to your tongue.”
It's the same with all food. Imported cauliflower, for example, has significant differences in colour, flavour and even longevity when compared to local cauliflower, as imported cauliflower may spoil faster. The fact is, the things that grow in our soil are best for our bodies.
Since Market Movers Ltd Group started in 2009, co-founders, Rachel Rennie and David Thomas have been proving local food has better taste and quality than imported food.
[caption id="attachment_1091107" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Market Movers and Farm & Function employee Yahannah Williams-Rostant stocks the shelves. - Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
The business started in Tunapuna, in Rennie's mother's porch, with only ten online customers. Now, they have a customer base of more than 10,000 with a portfolio of products that expanded from 25, when they started, to more than 1,000 retail products.
They are also exporting to the Dominican Republic and Barbados through their frozen-goods line, Farm and Function, with the coal of reaching as far as Europe. They also assist other food companies with marketing through MM Designs. Additionally, the group’s farm-to-table roving restaurant service, Our Moving Table, serves meals made from 95 per cent local food and produce. The restaurant moves to different locations, bringing dishes to the customer instead of having the customer come to the restaurant.
As one of the country's first click-and-collect stores, making more than 500,000 deliveries and selling north of 1.5 million pounds of fresh, home-grown food in the past decade, Market Movers Ltd Group is proving daily that locally grown food is simply better.
A passion for food
Speaking to Business Day, Rennie and Thomas said their business is based on their mutual passion for food.
Their entire staff of 20, who include physical store workers, manufacturers who produce the frozen goods and a design team, all share the same passion.
Rennie said she and her brother, Ravi Rennie, chief merchant officer, hail from St Helena, where their grandfather grew sugar cane and rice. She said they inherited a network from their grandfather that helped them, but also found farmers at different municipal markets.
Rennie said, “There has to be this common thread and a common passion to have a good business. For us, that is food. So once it has something to do with food, we
