Nau te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi.
With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.
As New Zealand marks Waitangi Day, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the enduring connections between Aotearoa New Zealand and Fiji. For centuries, New Zealand’s connections of family, friendship, culture and commerce have woven the two countries together across the Pacific Ocean.
Today, those bonds remain as strong as ever, clearly reflected in the scale and pace of trade growth between our economies.
New Zealand’s footprint in Fiji is significant, we have people from eight government agencies including New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.
This presence recognises Fiji’s importance to New Zealand’s prosperity and security, and Fiji’s increasingly central role as a regional and multilateral hub for the Pacific.
The Duavata Partnership provides a durable framework for cooperation, grounded in the understanding that economic prosperity and security are two halves of the same coin. Increasingly, “integration” has become the benchmark against which bilateral success is measured.
That integration is delivering tangible economic results. Since the re–establishment of a resident New Zealand Trade Commission in Suva in 2021, two–way trade has grown at a rate unprecedented in modern history. Bilateral trade has increased by 159 per cent, rising from $542 million in late 2021 to $1.41 billion in the most recent data. The shared target of reaching $2 billion in two–way trade by 2030 now appears ambitious but achievable.
New Zealand exports to Fiji have grown by 91 per cent over this period. Even more striking, Fiji’s exports to New Zealand have increased more than five–fold. While post–COVID tourism recovery has been a key driver, growth is also coming from diversification into services and higher–value sectors.
Fiji is emerging as a centre for back–office processing, aviation and logistics, alongside expanding agricultural collaboration in areas such as greenhouse production, forestry and orchard development.
Economic and border integration are also converging. With more than 25 flights each week between New Zealand and Fiji, and Fiji Airways’ expanding role as a global transit hub, Nadi Airport increasingly functions as an outer reach of New Zealand’s own border, reinforcing the close link between trade, people movement and security.
Partnership is built on shared contribution and shared benefit.
The New Zealand – Fiji trade relationship is an expression of this principle. One that continues to deepen, diversify and deliver prosperity for both our people and countries. There is still the potential to do so much more.
New Zealand businesses are keen to remain Fiji’s partners of choice in every sector.
And there is a strong pipeline of New Zealand businesses actively exploring opportunities to partner and invest in this wonderful country.
He waka eke noa
We are all in this canoe together.
No reira – nga mihi nui ki tenei ra o Waitangi
Therefore best wishes to you all this Waitangi Day
Tena tatou katoa
Greetings to you all
