The opening of a new local market for pineapple and pawpaw dried fruit dices is expected to boost production of pineapple in Fiji to at least $20 million for the next five years.
While launching the two products at the Nausori Agricultural Marketing Authority office yesterday, Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy, also revealed that Fiji produced about 6500 tonnes of pineapple annually, valued at $7.8 million.
Dr Reddy said the next step to expanding the market was to develop products out of commodities.
“Product development is key to market expansion and it also serves several other purposes including solving the perishability dimension, improving shelf life and contributing to better deal with food security targets, assisting in transportation and boosting profits,” he said.
“Unlike other countries, Fiji has the ideal climatic conditions to produce all-year-round enabling us to exploit the export market during off-season.
“We have one of the most fertile lands suitable for crop agriculture and this will see a consistent supply of produce which can be processed while our pristine endowment gives us a leverage to go into organic farming.
“At times, our farmers struggle to find market for their products and given that most agricultural products are perishable, it poses a risk to our farmers.”
Dr Reddy said developing products was one of the best ways to address these problems lauding AMA and Food Processors for establishing a processing plant for pineapple.
“Food Processors last year launched canned pineapple among other products and today (yesterday) we see AMA launching dried pineapple and pawpaw,” he said.
“This will be a major boost to incentivise local pineapple and pawpaw farmers to raise productivity, as well as raise production by bringing in more land under production and we will be able to export these products and bring in foreign exchange into the country.”
