FIJI’s Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Program will end in June, 2018.
The initiative under the Australian and New Zealand funded Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Program (PHAMA) began in 2011.
Presenting in Nadi during a review workshop for PHAMA member countries, Department of Agriculture principal economic training officer for agriculture trade Pauliasi Tuilau said the program had been a success for Fiji.
“Under the program we were able to provide technical assistance for farmers in the areas of market access and exporting products to new markets,” he said.
“We were able to provide pest control training for farmers in Sigatoka.
“One of the biggest successes of the program was our export of fresh ginger to Australia.
“Fiji is the only country out of the five member countries to export fresh ginger.”
He said market access training was also provided for dalo and kava farmers.
“For our kava farmers, we were able to put together the Fiji Kava Quality manual which is basically an information manual for farmers,” Mr Tuilau said.
“The manual provides information of the 13 varieties of kava which can be traded internationally.
“We are the only country that can trade all of the 13 varieties of kava, in comparison to Vanuatu which has more than hundred varieties, but only trade a few varieties.”
The other countries that benefited from the program included Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
