A CASUAL backyard gardening hobby during the Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be the origins of a money-making venture for Elizabeth Grace.
Ms Grace is the founder of Wailoaloa, Nadi-based Herbivore Farms, a family-focused business.
“So, it’s myself, my partner, my two beautiful kids, my brother, and I have one staff member right now who I’ve hired permanently,” she said.
“We grow all sorts of herbs for cooking. We also grow edible flowers and microgreens.
“All the products we grow we supply directly to resorts and high-end restaurants and individuals all around Fiji.”
Ms Grace said her goal was to harvest the produce and send them to the hotels as fast as possible.”
I started my farming venture three years ago. Initially, starting from Covid, I was working with an agricultural background.”
Ms Grace works with farmers by supplying their produce to people on the ground.
“So, a lot of people asked for herbs and during Covid I just thought, ‘oh, why don’t I just start a little backyard farm of herbs’, and from there, I just fell in love with it more.
“When Covid finished, and I went back to my real job, I just missed being in the garden and growing stuff. So, from there, I decided, well, if a lot of people are asking me for it and there is a demand for it, why don’t I just take it on and do it.”
Ms Grace has enjoyed working with the Ministry of Agriculture and getting to learn about nature and how to grow crops organically.
“The Ministry of Agriculture is always supporting me by teaching me new techniques and inviting me to events where I can broaden my mindset.”
Ms Grace considers farming a male-dominated field with its own set of challenges.
“And it’s cool being a female farmer, just to be like, ‘I can do it too’.
“Sometimes we look down upon ourselves, but I really love it whenever I meet a female farmer, and we just encourage each other to just keep going, and it’s really nice to have engagement and to have other female farmers support you.”
Ms Grace said distribution was also a key factor for farmers.
“For farmers like me and many others, we cannot get our produce across to these people in time.
“It’s good to partner up with other fresh food suppliers because they have a distribution line, they have cooler trucks and everything. So, one of the main things is distribution and how we can get our produce across to the person who’s buying it at the proper time.”
Ms Grace said she recently bought a 22-acre farm for future expansion plans within the next ten years.
“If you have something that you really love doing, there’s always someone out there looking for that product and if you focus on it, developing it and bringing it out there to people.And you really feel that your product is amazing, go for it.
“You should believe in yourself because that’s what I did, and I’m here today.”
