Time to policy chefs and farmers - Pacific Agritourism week

There is a big problem. Tourism in the Pacific Island countries is ever increasing, about 3.5% per year between 2008 and 2012. The total value of this market is forecasted to nearly double to US$4 billion by 2019. But at the same rate that is increasing, so is the amount and value of imported food to meet a gigantic demand. Up to 80% of the food in the tourism industry is imported, and not only famers are unhappy about this, the whole of Pacific Islands have lamented this imbalance for far too long. From this, the Pacific community and their governments are now in an AgriTourism week in Nadi, Fiji on the race to adopt a hospitality policy framework and take action.

This policy framework is a collaborative effort between the European Union, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) and the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at the University of the South Pacific (USP). This policy will bring about some 95% of local food to the hotels kitchens, and that would directly involve the farmers and hotel Chefs. But before we get the chefs and farmer together, we need to think of several things that would come into play even if food is grown locally for our visitors: it must have quality, it’s healthy and fresh, and always available. The latter is trickier than it is. Hotel chefs on the other hand, have another problem; they have been dictated for far too long about what menu selection they should put on the dish, so now they probably have to get back to school again and learn how to menu local food.

See more on CTA's blog: http://blogs.cta.int/2015/06/30/time-policy-chefs-farmers/