Taveuni has raked in $4.3 million so far this year from dalo export.
Acting agriculture officer Taveuni Isei Sorokibau told Assistant Agriculture Minister Tomasi Tunabuna that despite this income for the past six months, they had seen a drop of 5000 tonnes with dalo export compared with a decade ago.
Mr Sorokibau said in 2010 Taveuni exported 7639 tonnes of dalo, dropped in 2011 and 2012 but picked up again in 2013 with 7680 tonnes.
“Following 2013, the export continued to drop to as low as 1414 tonnes in 2016, picked up again in 2017 with 2934 tonnes and 2974 tonnes in 2021,” he said.
“Since 2010 our export has dropped by 5000 tonnes and we are trying to bridge this gap and return to the 7000 tonnes we used to export.
“Therefore, one way of doing this is to keep all tausala suckers on the island to bridge the gap instead of supplying the 140,000 suckers to Viti Levu and Vanua Levu every year.”
Mr Sorokibau asked Mr Tunabuna for the ministry to allow a temporary ban on the supply of dalo suckers out of Taveuni so they could bridge the 5000 gap.
“One of the challenges we have faced is involving more famers to plant suckers so this responsibility has been shouldered by agricultural officers,” he said.
“If Government could also increase our budget to help us in this work since Taveuni exports about 80 per cent of dalo every year.
“We are keen to bring back the lost 5000 tonnes of dalo that Taveuni used to export 10 years ago.”
Mr Tunabuna, in his response said he would discuss this issue with the team at the headquarters and supporting such great export initiatives were important.
