More than 5000 Fijian companies have recorded trade in New Zealand over the past five years.
Fijian President Ratu Wiliam Katonivere said this when he officiated at the official opening of the Fiji New Zealand and New Zealand Fiji Business Councils 2022 joint conference in Nadi yesterday.
Ratu Wiliame said farmers who practiced mixed cash cropping were more resilient and successful at making a living.
“There lies an opportunity for the two business councils support projects that assist farmers with technical expertise and export marketing resources to expand into new, lucrative crops and more compelling ways to value-add to the high quality agricultural goods that Fijian farmers produce,” he said.
“This joint council is an important staging ground for co-operation between business and government leaders from Fiji and New Zealand.
“The Fiji New Zealand Business Council, true to its purpose to promote friendship, goodwill and understanding between the business communities of Fiji and New Zealand, continues to actively facilitate business relationships as well as people-to-people interactions to stimulate domestic and export trade.”
The president said there was security in forging those relationships within our region and the past two years had shown us how volatile and increasingly unreliable global supply chains could prove to be.
He added that as island nations, we would always be importers in some way or another and expanding trade within our region is simply a more resilient model.
Ratu Wiliame told delegates that the Fiji New Zealand Business Council’s reach also includes close collaborative work with the Fiji Australian Business Council.
