Season's first shipment of Tongan squash for Japan next week [1]
Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 17:30. Updated on Thursday, October 2, 2014 - 15:13.
The first shipment of Tongan squash to Japan for 2005 will leave Nuku‘alofa at the end of next week with 3200 tonnes of Tongan squash.
Pila Mataitonga from FIMCO, one of the exporters, said that his company will ship 700 tonnes in the first shipment, and the rest of the tonnage will be made up by another 14 exporters.
The harvesting of this year's squash season began on Monday October 3 and will run until the second week of November.
Stephen Edwards, the Secretary General of the Tonga Squash Council, said that exporters were targeting an export total of 13,000 tonnes this year , but so far they were uncertain whether they will reach it, because some planters planted too late in the season. The late crops will be harvested during the sunny and hot season and the yield will may be not as good.
With regards to price Stephen said they were still negotiating for a minimum price per kilo before squash is shipped.
Last year the Tonga Squash Council exported 13,098 metric tones of squash to Japan.