A $12million investment by New Valley Processors (Fiji) Pte Ltd will see the construction of a new export processing facility in Sabeto, Nadi to cater for agricultural produce from over 10,000 small holder farmers across Sigatoka to Rakiraki, a third of Viti Levu’s farmlands.
This would provide these farmers, who are already on contract farming arrangement with New Valley, with more supply opportunities when the facility is up and running by September.
“Phase one was the ground-breaking that happened today,” New Valley chief executive officer Navi Tuivuniwai told this newspaper after yesterday’s ground-breaking by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
“Construction should be completed by August and we should start exporting by September.
“Right now, we are working with our cluster farmers to plant so our focus over the next six to 12 months is to build our supply capacity.”
Mr Tuivuniwai said the key crops they would be working with are bongo chilies, cowpeas, cassava and turmeric, high value crops that will be processed for both local and export markets.
Through its aggregation model, where it raises seedlings and supplies them to its farming clusters, the company has become one of the biggest suppliers of agro produce to local processor Food Processors Fiji and exporter Agro Marketing, supplying the latter with around 80 percent of its exports in pre-COVID days, Mr Tuivuniwaisaid.
Last year alone, its farmers supplied over 15 metric tonnes of bongo chilies and it is expecting similar supply volume this year.
A rural development initiative focused on scaling the commercial production and processing high-value crops, New Valley Processors Ltd was founded in 2012 with a mission to provide a “market beyond mountains” and to change the mind-set towards farming.
“We want to build career farmers, smart farmers who will study hard in school just to be the best in the farming business.
This is our vision,” Mr Tuivuniwai said.
“The current mind-set around farming is a mountain in itself and we want to build agriculture as the backbone of our beloved Fiji.”
Note: This article was first published on the print version of the Fiji Times dated May 9, 2025
