The agriculture trade for 2016 showed a deficit of $453 million.
This has been revealed by the Permanent Secretary of Agriculture David Kolitagane at the Exporters Symposium.
Kolitagane says that the value of export which includes both crops and livestock was $193 million in which the export was mainly driven by major fresh and chilled commodities such as Taro, Ginger, Cassava, Pawpaw and Kava as well as other value-added products such as Coconut oil.
He says Fiji imported $646 million worth of commodities such as rice, potato, dairy, fresh and chilled meat and others of which most are for the hotel industry.
Kolitagane says the challenge now for agriculture is to increase the non-sugar export by $100 million and to reduce the imports of fruits and vegetables by $80 million in 2020.
He adds that some may say that this is unrealistic, but they believe that everything is possible if they put all their efforts together in finding better ways and solutions.
