Inculcating improved nutrition to complement the nation’s food security goals is paramount for the Ministry of Agriculture in light of the lack of a nutritious and balanced diet prevalent in Fijian households.

This was shared with villagers of Emuri Village by Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy while handing over fruit trees to the village recently.

“Households in the rural areas and those living near the sea have enough protein and carbohydrates but nutrients, minerals and vitamins are missing because they don’t consume enough fruits so what we want to do is promote the establishment of orchards so that there is enough supply,” said Minister Reddy.

“Now when we’re talking about balanced nutrition we need to have nutritional food, we need to consume nutritional foods, for that, fruits are an important part of our diet.

“At the moment we are importing a lot of fruits from neighbouring countries like Australia and New Zealand, we want to grow most of these fruits from within Fiji so there’s no reason why we are importing such large amounts of fruits from Australia and New Zealand when we can grow these fruits here.

“Of course, we are not expecting everyone to become fruit farmers but we want some farmers to specialize in fruits or at least have some land dedicated to fruits not only for our consumption but we also want to export so we’re so glad that some of your members, some of your households have expressed or applied for orchards which is very good, that means they understand the importance of fruits as there’s a massive market for it locally too,” Hon. Reddy added.

Fiji imports annually a wide range of fresh fruits that include grapes, oranges, apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a total value of $17 million and $3.8 million being processed fruits. These imported fruits have substituted locally grown tropical fruits such as guava, mango, avocado, oranges, mandarins and other indigenous fruits in our hotels and supermarkets.

The Orchard Development program will enhance public-private partnership toward the holistic development of a sustainable local fruit industry and curb our import bill.

The objective of the Orchard Development program is to;

·         Promote mass production of local fruits through the establishment of Orchards thus increasing consumption;

·         Provide equal Nutrition opportunities for every Fijian which can curb NCDs;

·         Ensure consistent availability of local fruits;

·         Commercialise fruit production in Fiji;

·         Reduce import bills and increase export earnings; and

·         Create job opportunities, especially for the youth.

The program is aligned to the Ministry’s 5-year Strategic Development Plan, which is part of its 16 initiatives Food Security, Agriculture Growth and Expansion Plan to scale up programs including the Establishment of Orchards to enhance Commercial Agriculture.

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