Farmers to think “business” and become more proactive - Pacific Agritourism week 2015

One of the focus of the first-ever Pacific Community AgriTourism Week is “sustainable growth, decent jobs and businesses”. Chefs attending the event have taken this opportunity to go down local in visiting farms in Fiji. “A smart guy is one who does farming, identifies loopholes in the market and tries his best to figure how to bridge the gaps”, says celebrity chef Colin Chung during the chefs’ field trip visits. In the Pacific countries, our industry is growing and it would be great if farmers could become more proactive in providing extended services. A great example, “Farm Boy” from Fiji has over 800 suppliers and is an active farmer who found himself in real Agri-Tourism business world. Hotels and other customers come looking for him. The farm has different kinds of vegetables for domestic supply, and recently in the list of exporting to New Zealand. In its initial beginning, it was the Farm Boy team that took up this initiative of identifying loopholes within the market and came up with ideas of how they can fix it in a better way.

Nowadays, life gets easier for customers when you get to the market and find out that what you are looking for is packed and ready for you. The farmers make it easier for you. They grow it, harvest it, clean it, have them packed and sell. Even in shops, you will realise that goods have been packed and ready for sale. This is what farmers are mostly encouraged to do so that instead of looking for them, they come to us. In the Pacific context, big hotels generally do not have time to produce food. They rely totally on the farmers for food production, but the latter are sometimes not proactive enough and what is missing is that they are not looking at farming in a business perspective. It is also true that some farmers own small pieces of land and need to upscale their farming activities and shift from subsistence farming to agribusiness and hence the possibility of engaging in agri-tourism. In the Pacific, the lack of regional trade and services is also an issue. It is not easy to do business with neighbouring countries and islands.

See more via CTA's blog: http://blogs.cta.int/2015/06/30/farmers-think-business-become-proactive/