Reducing the trade deficit of fruits and vegetables remains a key priority of the Fijian Government through the Ministry of Agriculture.

This was highlighted by the Ministry's Deputy Secretary for Agriculture Development, Jone Sovalawa during the launching of the Establishment of Fruit Tree Orchards Initiative, one of five new initiatives of the Ministry of Agriculture at Volivoli Village, Sigatoka earlier this week.

“Fiji has been relying on its traditional fruits such as Banana, Pineapple, Papaya and Mangoes over a number of years with imported fruits such as Apples, Oranges, Pears and Grapes having also taken a wide market share,” he said.

According to the Agriculture Statistics 2018 Trade Data, Fiji annually imports $21.4 million worth of fresh fruits and $0.33 million of processed fruits.

“Fiji has the potential to reduce 50% of this import bill by focusing its resources on growing or producing more specific, high potential fruit items locally,” said Mr. Sovalawa.

“Currently, Fiji relies largely on imported produce to meet the demands of its tourism sector and the agriculture sector will continue to play a dominant and leading role in the growth and development of Fiji’s economy through the provision of food security for the Rural and Maritime Divisions,” he added.

Highlighting the challenges in substituting imported fruits with local supply, Mr. Sovalawa said the Ministry of Agriculture continued to identify opportunities to link the tourism and the agriculture sectors, with the onus on the local agriculture sector to produce quality products in the correct quantity on a consistence basis.

“Under the Establishment of the Fruit Tree Orchards initiative, the Ministry will ensure the setting up of organized orchards of selected fruits in strategic locations to make fruits readily available to locals as well as to our ever-growing tourism industry and for our export markets.

The newly introduced fruit tree varieties will be available to farmers to boost existing production for import substitution and export promotion while also supporting the fruit industry.

In addition the Ministry of Agriculture will continue its research for high yielding varieties with low production costs, are pest and disease tolerant and resilient to the effects of climate change. 

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