OPAL Slater’s passion for mixing chemicals in laboratories and performing various experiments has paid off.

She transferred the passion and creativity to the kitchen, creating a quality smoked fish, seasoned with local herbs and spices.

Slater, a patent holder for the product, told JIS News that her dream for this business started in 1981 when there was a shortage of locally produced food in Jamaica.

“I was looking around to see in what ways I could help to alleviate some of the problems using as many local products as is possible. So, my family was my first set of guinea pigs. I used to do a lot of wine making, beer making and stout making,” she chuckled.

It was 18 years later that the trained chemical technologist started Woodside Enterprise, through which the smoked fish is manufactured.

“I was at one of the many crossroads of my life when I decided that being the entrepreneur in mind and spirit that I would take the plunge, and I decided to speak with the Scientific Research Council (SRC), in terms of what assistance they could give me in product development,” she explained.

The SRC, Slater said, played an integral role in getting her business started and luck was on her side as the council usually requires an advanced sum of money before looking at business proposals.

“In my case, I brought in my product and we did it on a batch-by-batch situation, which helped me to develop my product,” she said.

She said the SRC currently does all the production as they have the necessary equipment.

“I am probably a little baby who is growing into a toddler and has not left the compound as yet. I am hoping that in the near future that I would be able to set up my own factory and to do my expansion accordingly,” she said.

Explaining the production process, Slater said she uses fillet of sea trout, which is smoked and seasoned with her own formulation of local herbs and spices.

“What happens in the process is that it (the fish) is thawed, marinated in a special brine solution. For the jerk-flavoured smoked fish, it is seasoned and then it is put in the smoke house and cooked to international temperatures, and then I package the product,” she said.

She described the product as a ready-to-eat meal which is especially targeted at the career person and the single person, who has little time available for the preparation of food. It can also be served at cocktail parties with a dip.

“It is for just about any occasion,” she said.

The product, she added, has been well received.

“I would say that 99.5 per cent of persons who taste the product like it because it is different, and the combined flavour of hot smoke and our local spices makes it a unique product,” she said with pride. “I have carved a little niche market for myself. Once you have tasted the product, you find that it has many uses.”

The product is available in hotels in Negril and Kingston, but there are plans to expand offerings to supermarkets as well as to export it, once financing is available. She said that one of the challenges she faces is accessing funding, pointing out that interest rates charged by lending institutions were “ridiculous”.

She said that more funds should be made available to persons who have a serious interest in developing local products.

“I think the way that Jamaica should really be heading is where we use our locally grown crops and add value to it. My little sojourn into the food processing world was to try and put that belief into reality as that is the only way Jamaica is going to get out of the problems that it is in,” she said.

She added: “We have so many ethnic products here that we really need to seriously look at developing a serious manufacturing industry where we could put all of this development together and the necessary funds just have to be provided by the government and the private sector to allow us to unleash our entrepreneurship.”

She hoped that this year, the fifth year of production, she will finally be able to get the required help to expand the business and branch off on her own.

“I am hopeful that this year will be my year. I have claimed it to be mine, and the Father knows that I have fought long and hard to even stay where I am now,” she said.

Slater, who has a nine year-old son, said that being a mother and an entrepreneur was another challenge, but she has managed to joggle both roles. “I have learnt to prioritise and to shift focus from one to the other at the given time. It is challenging but there is no other way.”