The Fijian government must recognise the success of Indian agriculture as a mentor and aid partner so Fiji can develop export‑oriented agriculture for a significant foreign exchange earner.
These were the words of President Fiji-India Business Council Swani Maharaj who was speaking at the Nadi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Indian High Commission’s second business forum in Nadi.
Maharaj says the desirability of Fiji-India partnership in numerous areas already exists in areas such as climate change and Fiji could beneficially explore meaningful areas such as agriculture, the IT sector, the manufacturing sector, health care and vehicle imports.
He says Fiji should obtain Indian expertise and mentoring for commercial farmers to boost production and export of vegetables like okra, bhaji and eggplant both in the fresh and processed forms.
Maharaj says Fiji’s climate and soil is suitable for growing a variety of indigenous and non‑indigenous fruit, but there is mostly only organized fruit growing like pawpaw, pineapple and banana.
He says Fiji’s agriculture can easily be expanded to include mango, guava, custard apple, sapodilla and pomegranate -which is a huge health food demand.
Maharaj says there is a huge market for seedless guavas in Australia and New Zealand and India has very good varieties of guava which is available all year round.
He says last year Australia imported 2000 tonnes of mangoes from India and Fiji could benefit greatly if it was able to provide such a demand.
He says guava orchards and year‑round availability would also benefit the local population nutritionally as guava is relatively inexpensive.
