Sada wrap

Nazir Ali with his wife Shaffiran, centre, and sister Zanifer Hassan at the Caribbean Agri-Food convention hosted by Namdevco.

Photos: Wesley Gibbings

By Wesley Gibbings

Meet Nazir Ali. He owns and co-manages a Princes Town operation capable of producing between 8,000 and 10,000 rotis a day.

Inspired by the processes employed in the mass production of tortillas in the United States and pressed by his commitments to the School Nutrition Programme, Ali has developed a new approach to the production of rotis that remains a trade secret until he secures the necessary patents.

But, whatever transpires behind its Aldana Street operation, the Roti Factory Ltd has met its massive quotas over recent years and Ali sees room for both improvement and expansion.

One more thing. Ali is blind.

A gradual loss of sight since the age of nine was eventually diagnosed as the consequence of retinitis pigmentosa—an inherited eye disease that causes the degeneration of the retina.

Not unlike Ali’s own forays into new technologies and roti-making techniques, research into the rare disease is offering new hope.

The 58-year-old innovator remains at least remotely hopeful he may someday be able to see again. He has traveled to the United States more than once for medical examinations and to explore the possibilities not only for recovery, but for new business opportunities.

In the interim, he is a man on a mission. “What I am doing is preparing for tomorrow’s market,” he told Business Guardian.

“People who want roti might look at the sada wrap and say ‘this is not what I know‚’ so I am focusing on the children who want what looks good and what tastes good,” Ali said.

The sada wrap looks and feels like a mini dhalpuri roti without the dhal. Ali worries adults may look at it and say, “this is not real roti.” But, it is, he contends.

Thousands of children who receive it in their lunch boxes, he adds, are likely to agree as well. Ali supplies the rotis and the caterers do the filling. He in fact operated as a full-fledged caterer for the School Nutrition Programme between 1988 and 1993.

His business then went in a new direction (automated packaging of cutlery and napkins) before he returned to the programme as an independent supplier to caterers in South Trinidad.

Ali had by then found that the practice of using paratha (bus up shut)—produced as a huge roti and then ripped into single servings—was “not hygienic” since it involved “too much handling.”

This led him to experiment with single-serving dhalpuri rotis which generated such a mess in the classroom, that he was forced to go back to the drawing board.

“I know it’s a mess,” Ali conceded, “so I said, let me make something better than that.”

Then came the sada wrap a little under a year ago. His participation in the recent Caribbean Agri-Food Trade Convention hosted by the National Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco) suggests he is looking at possible export markets.

There are proven Caribbean markets for roti and Ali is convinced that the roti-starved overseas disapora will go for the new product.

Namdevco CEO, Samaroo Dowlath, would prefer Ali seek ways to effectively use local root crops instead of imported wheat flour to maximise indigenous content. He is however already moving in that general direction.

“I am trying to see how we can cut down on the use of all that flour,” he said. “It’s not good for you.”

His approach is to strive for a thinner roti with more fill. “We realise we have to integrate these things to get the fibers in,” Ali said.

“Cassava is ideal, but we would need to ensure there is a reliable supply that has a consistent quality.

“This is not simply drying and converting into flour,” he added, “a lot of research needs to be done.”

Ali said he hoped an enterprising entrepreneur would explore the possibility of a flour factory using cassava and even sweet potato.

“The problem, though, is where is the raw product? Will there be a reliable supply?”

Even so, he knows there will be the acid test—taste.

“The biggest problem I know I have is tradition,” he said. “There are people who, before they even taste it, will say ‘this is not what I know.’”

Ali knows it will take some time for the sada wrap to gain universal acceptance at home, especially among people with fixed notions of the roti look and feel. At his side are his wife, Shaffiran, and his sisters Zanifar Hassan and Zubidah Mohammed.

Mohammed, a teacher, said “some things take time—it takes time for people to develop new tastes.”

Ali meanwhile believes the relatively small Sada Wrap will sooner or later yield big returns.