SHE’S developed her business selling locally made health products in the past five years and it’s become her post retirement insurance.
Fifty-six-year-old Api Kurusiga from Taci Village in Noco, Rewa, along with her husband and son developed her business of selling honey, virgin coconut oil, pure noni juice, bottled layalaya tonic, local sea salt, traditional Rewan herbal oil and a range of handmade soap.
“We saw the need to be still doing something and earning when we finished from the corporate world. We saw the need to learn lifelong skills to look after us after our life from the corporate world. We saw the need to make more money than what the corporate world was paying us. We saw the need to still be active rather than rely on a pension and our children to look after us,” Api said.
She used her experience in the corporate world to start the family business and for the past five years has patiently built it from scratch.
“We had enough information to help us start this business. Personally, I previously worked in a role of developing businesses so I had enough information to equip me to start this business,” she said.
And this included getting the rural communities involved in her business, which provides farmers with another source of income.
“We saw the need to use our abundant resources in our rural set-up to empower our rural people financially. We saw the need to work in partnership with rural farmers to address food security. We saw the need to empower our rural farmers to alleviate poverty,” Api said.
Honey is sourced from bee farms on Kadavu and Beqa islands and from Cakaudrove on Vanua Levu while sea salt is produced by Lomawai villagers in Nadroga.
Some of these health products, like honey and noni are very popular as alternative medicinal products but Api and her Lapita brand have gone a step further and made use of her knowledge of traditional Fijian medicines to package layalaya (wild ginger) and virgin coconut oil.
“The products we handle are local wellbeing products, I don’t know if they are called traditional Fijian medicine. I grew up in a household where local herbs were given to anyone who was not feeling well.
“Headache, stomach ache, ear ache, sinus, toothache, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, these are all ailments which I came across when I was small growing up in my village that required the use of local wellbeing products that I now currently sell.
“I saw my grandparents, my aunts and uncles use this and the power that it has to heal. Secondly, it has very little or no side effects at all when compared to the western medicine,” she said.
Api does agree that traditional medicine does have a place in our society as it really helps people overcome some of their ailments.
“Traditional medicine does not give side effects. Some of this medicine can be taken even when you are not sick. So it can be taken as a precaution. An example is layalaya which can be taken to control your sugar level and diabetes,” she said.
Api’s Lapita products are sold at pharmacies, supermarkets, boutique stores, by chefs at hotels and restaurants and through wet markets around Suva.
Recently they had a trial order from the US and this she believes is a start of bigger things for her and her family.
“Some of our products can readily enter overseas markets in the US, England, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sudan…,” Api said as the family business lays down plans for expansion.
