Tonga's fumigation chamber awaits certification by NZ [1]
Thursday, October 14, 2010 - 19:24. Updated on Saturday, May 10, 2014 - 15:27.
TONGA'S hope to resume exporting watermelon to New Zealand by the end of September was not realised, but there is a hope that the new fumigation facility would be eventually certified by New Zealand.
Director of Agriculture Viliami Manu told Matangi Tonga on October 13, said that they had submitted documents, including pictures of the fumigation chamber and facility, to their New Zealand counterpart, and asked for the certification of the Fumigation Chamber to be approved by this week, but then it did not happen.
The fumigation chamber was funded by the EU arrived from Australia in August.
Viliami admitted that they had failed to ensure that a certification of the chamber was done according to the New Zealand Quarantine standard, and that this week they had submitted the documents required by the New Zealand Quarantine.
Viliami said that the water melon export to New Zealand project also face other challenges last month.
When the chamber was to be tested they needed a 20ft container full of watermelons, but they were provided with only two bins of watermelons and were told by growers that they would fill it up with other produce such as pawpaw.
Growers
Viliami Tiseli the CEO for the Tonga Growers Federation said they were concerned that the hold up on their watermelon export might affect their market in New Zealand because they were committed to supply the watermelons within a certain time.
He said they initially targeted to begin exporting their watermelon either on August 30 or in September, and their growers harvested their export quality watermelon.
However, the Tonga Quarantine did not complete the safety certification of the fumigation chambers from the New Zealand quarantine therefore nothing was shipped, he said.
"We are also committed to our growers and we have a policy in place to pay upfront for their produce before export.
"In addition, we have already mapped out our planting and harvesting program for our watermelons and we are targeting to export seven containers of watermelon in November in two shipments to New Zealand, with more to come in December, he said.