The European Union funded Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade (FACT) pilot project aims to support commercial ventures and producer groups in becoming export-oriented, market-driven enterprises that will consistently supply overseas markets with competitive agricultural and forestry products. The EU-FACT pilot project is implemented by the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Suva, Fiji Islands, since May 2008.
FACT’s activities are overseen by a technical advisory group (TAG) comprising five experts from the private sector, the University of the South Pacific and the Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commission (PITIC) in New Zealand. Based on commercial and other relevant social and environmental criteria, the TAG selected 17 Pacific Islands enterprises and products from more than 80 enterprises which responded to a widely distributed expression of interest.
The overall objective is to promote and increase trade in agricultural and forestry products from Pacific ACP countries.
FACT complements efforts aimed at enhancing regional cooperation and integration: this includes the policy commitment of European Union in the Cotonou Agreement in facilitating the integration of the Pacific ACP into the regional and global economies.
Further it also promotes sustainable increase in quality and range of exports of agriculture and forestry products within and out of the Pacific Region.
The purpose of FACT is to: “Sustainably increase quality and range of exports of agricultural and forestry (agfor) products by value adding with emphasis on supply chain improvement, post harvest handling, and food safety standards by means of fair trade and organic farming practices.”
The case studies generated will be used by SPC and others to disseminate information to the wider community.
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Progress with two Fijian enterprises
SPC FACT project enables Suva-based company to move to Labasa  |
| Peni Bale |
Thirty-three year old Peni Bale is no ordinary civil servant. This Social Welfare Officer from Seaqaqa is the largest cassava supplier to the Balthan (Western) Ltd processing plant at Vakamasisuasua subdivision in Labasa, Fiji Islands.
Peni started off as a subsistence farmer, but his operation is growing into a big commercial farm, with cassava planted on fifteen acres of land. He has not regretted making that move, saying it was worth every cent he had invested.
However, it was only possible to expand after a reliable market moved closer to home. He is able to concentrate on farming while Balthan, a large exporter of diverse fresh and frozen agricultural products, including cassava, takes care of the markets.
Thanks to assistance offered under the European Union-funded Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade (FACT) project, a pilot programme designed to sustainably increase the quality and range of exports of Pacific agriculture and forestry products, Balthan has been able to provide a valuable, consistent market for Vanua Levu farmers like Bale.
This ambitious pilot project is administered in the Fiji Islands by Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Land Resource Division and operates in 7 pacific island members of ACP countries.
LRD, through the FACT project, is working directly with the private sector.
FACT is committed to creating employment opportunities and generating income at the grass roots level by assisting commercial ventures and producer groups in becoming export-oriented, market-driven enterprises that will consistently supply overseas markets with competitive and quality agricultural and forestry products.
For Bale, having a market next door has enabled him to send his wife to India for medical treatment and support their children’s education.
He recently purchased machinery to help with his growing cassava farm, including a water pump and a tractor, and employs five full-time labourers.
For farmers like Bale, Balthan’s large warehouse at the end of a street in this dusty industrial area is more than just a cassava processing plant; it is a source of innovation, contributing to sustainable livelihoods in Vanua Levu.
Plant manager Jane Batisaresare said the plant received cassava from as far as Dama in Bua and around the Macuata province.
She said the plant was the company’s first in northern Fiji. According to Batisaresare, the cassava from Labasa seemed to be of higher quality than that from Suva and Savusavu.
‘I’m told cassava from dry regions is far better than cassava in Viti Levu,’ said Batisaresare.
Balthan’s Labasa operation employs 10 full-time employees, and their farmer network is currently focusing on growing cassava.
Batisaresare said the cassava industry has great potential in Macuata.
The company has 75 registered cassava suppliers in Labasa, Seaqaqa and Bua.‘The supply is dependable – it is very good,’ she said.
Cyclone Thomas in March this year affected most farmers in the North, but Batisaresare said it had not dampened the spirit of her suppliers, nor had it affected supplies.
‘With us around, they are determined to plant more cassava as they have a reliable market. I don’t have to call them; they come every day, and there are more people planting although they are not registered yet.’
Batisaresare said Balthan was only able to establish a plant in Labasa thanks to FACT’s assistance, which totalled FJD 90,000.
FACT has assisted Balthan with equipment for processing root crops and coordinated the supply chain with the farmers.
FACT’s Production Technician (Food Safety) Manasa Katonivualiku is also working closely with Balthan to advise them on food safety, especially focussing on achieving HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points – a process ensuring that food is processed safely) certification for the factory.
The plant only accepts the New Guinea variety of cassava, called kuli piqi.
Batisaresare said that the cassava they received each day were peeled, processed and packed. They were then kept in a freezer, waiting to be shipped to Suva for export.
She said that the farmers needed to supply cassava on a commercial scale, meaning they had to provide a consistently supply, not just two or three bags once in a while. She said the plant was receiving at least two tonnes of cassava per day.
‘If the supply is good we get four tonnes a day, and we are looking forward to getting six tonnes a day.’
For the future, Batisaresare said Balthan might expand into buying plantain (vudi), cocoyam (dalo ni tana), taro (dalo), spinach (bele) and taro leaves (rourou).
The company worked closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to get the word out to encourage more farmers to supply root crops.
FACT Production Technician Sanfred Smith said they had come up with strategies to improve the farmers’ supplies.
Principal Agriculture Officer Northern John Cox said that while the root-crop export industry was just getting started, it was in Vanua Levu to stay. He added that a price rise and buying right from the farm gate would greatly boost production in the region.
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Garden Island mill promotes wonders of virgin coconut oil
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| Suluweti L |
Like many children, Suluweti Loqimi dreamed of becoming a school teacher as she grew up in Vuna Village on Taveuni.
But unlike most children her age, the bright 17-year-old dropped out of school last year because her parents could not afford her school fees.
She seemed resigned to the thought that her fate would be to stay in the village and not return to school.
However, her future looks a bit little brighter after she secured a job at Origins Pacific, a Fiji-owned and operated company that manufactures premium quality cold-pressed virgin coconut oil (VCO).
Suluweti is the youngest employee at the mill, which is just a few metres away from her home.
Earning about $55 to $80 a week is enough to put a big smile on her face, as well as make her family happy.
Her father Misaele Mateduadua said that whatever her daughter earned was hers to keep.
Suluweti said that each week she helped her 46-year-old father buy groceries for the family, and she pocketed the rest.
‘Hopefully I will be able to save enough to return to school and who knows, I may be able to realise my childhood dream of becoming a teacher,’ said Suluweti.
This change is the result of the benefits of private enterprise coming to her village.
Suluweti is one of the eight permanent women employees working at the VCO mill located on the southern end of Taveuni.
Mill manager Leba Vosaicake said that since it resumed operation last August, the mill has impacted lives of many people – workers, coconut suppliers, the Vuna village shop owner – and the village as a whole.
Mrs Vosaicake said young Suluweti was one of the eight women and two men who were employed full time to cold press the coconuts using simple equipment.
‘Their skills ensure that all the natural goodness and flavour of the coconut is retained,’ said Mrs Vosaicake.
Coconut mill owner Peni Drodrolagi said while it was still too early to gauge the difference the mill had made in the lives of coconut suppliers in Vuna, he hoped the business had made some impact.
For one thing, villagers could now afford to pay the weekly diesel levy that provided electricity in their homes every night.
The village shop was also well stocked because people were buying in cash and not on credit. Mr Drodrolagi said the 17 school children of the workers were in school full time and their parents were able to pay their school fees.
Origins Pacific got a boost when it was selected as a beneficiary of Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade (FACT), a European Union-funded programme that is administered in the Pacific by the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).
FACT is committed to creating employment opportunities and generating income at the grass roots level by assisting commercial ventures and producer groups in becoming export-oriented, market-driven enterprises that will consistently supply overseas markets with competitive and quality agricultural and forestry products.
Through the project, Origins Pacific will be assisted in its efforts to promote the nutritional benefits of VCO, and in the process acquire HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points – a process ensuring that food is processed safely) and organic certification, which would open exports into Europe.
The FACT project aims to increase competitiveness of potential exports by addressing and, where necessary, upgrading substandard components of the supply chain of selected products.
In a typical day, workers at the Vuna mill are expected to produce 75 litres of VCO from 800 nuts.
The company has another VCO mill in Vunuku Village on Moala in the Lau Group. ‘These two sites have enough capacity to meet current sales,’ stated Mr Drodrolagi, a former Shell Fiji oil executive.
The market for VCO, he believes, is not a problem.
‘New products always require selling campaigns and need to be promoted. We have to move away from making oil only and also make high value coconut-derived products.
‘We need to look at the market closely and select the products that need to be developed; we must produce what the market wants.’
Running a company like Origins Pacific in a village setting has not been easy. One of the challenges relates to the need for workers to balance the effort they put into their own commercial and financial interests and the effort they put into their social responsibilities.
‘They should evaluate the contribution the business is giving to their own cash needs and try and make that sustainable by contributing to the survival of the business.’
Of some concern is the growing senility of coconut groves, which is not helped by the lack of a vigorous coconut replanting programme.
Mr Drodrolagi estimated that about 50 million nuts are wasted in the fields every year.
That’s equivalent to about four to five million litres of VCO.
‘If we can use only 50 per cent of these nuts for VCO, we can generate cash sales in the rural islands equivalent to about FJD 16 million per year in income.’
He suggested that the government could help by developing a VCO pricing mechanism that would allow the oil to be well positioned in the market when compared to other cooking oils.
‘This will make VCO much more affordable.’
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