From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 14, no. 1, January 1999.

By Pesi Fonua.

Pousima Afeaki started exporting in 1995 with one container of assorted produce and by 1997 it had jumped to 65 containers. He is one of a handful of hard working Tongan farmer-exporters who can see a positive future for agricultural exports from Tonga.

Minolu Nishi is another who points to the incentives that the government has given to the growers and says that the big markets in Australia and New Zealand are waiting.

Paul Karalus believes that Tonga should be able to feed the Pacific with talo, ‘ufi, manioke, watermelon, and his tissue culture projects this year will supply a missing link for the establishment of a healthy Tongan agricultural export industry.

The message is clear that Tonga could increase its troubled Foreign Reserve by simply increasing its agricultural exports.

These are just some of the people who are fighting back against the recession that has gripped the Tonga economy for the past three years. They are a shaft of light in the face of the discouraging news of a credit squeeze by the Reserve Bank and a big cut in government spending by the Treasury.

The National Reserve Bank has indicated it will continue to impose a 30 per cent deposit on all borrowings from banks to slow down imports and ease off the decline of Tonga’s Foreign Reserve.

The Bank of Tonga though supporting in principal the policy of the Reserve Bank, at the same time observes that the policy is harming the ordinary people who like to borrow for school fees while at the same time anyone could buy foreign currency and move money out of the country.

While these Government measures appear to be slowing down and shrinking the economy, some people are fighting back to put the Tongan economy on track.

This is the beginning of a series of articles whereby Matangi Tonga looks at what some highly motivated and enterprising individuals are doing to help increase Tonga’s exports and to bring in much needed foreign currency earning.

Minolu Nishi, a grower-exporter from ‘Utulau believed that Tonga could increase its foreign reserve by simply increasing its agricultural exports. He also believed that government had given enough incentives for growers to increase their production.

Minolu has dabbling in the exporting business since the 1970s, but last year he decided to get into exporting seriously. In partnership with his son, who holds a university degree in economic and business management, he bought a property in Auckland and set up retail and wholesale outlets for Tongan root crops.

Minolu said that since November last year he had shipped about three containers of mainly manioke (cassava), and other produce such as coconut and kava. He said that their export program was affected by cyclone Cora, but they were hoping to bounce back by September when he would be exporting a container of manioke a month to New Zealand. “We have been planting in blocks, to ascertain that we could export a container every month.”

Minolu said that the market for manioke in New Zealand is big, particularly among the Pacific Island communities, and if he could get more land for farming he could export more to New Zealand, and eventually set a similar outlet in Australia.

“I am different from other exporters, because I don’t buy from other growers. I export only my own crops, and in that way I can be certain that I can maintain a supply to the market.”

Minolu was involved in exports for a number of years, while he was working for the former Commodities Board. After he retired in the 1980s he kept exporting to Turner and Growers big produce market in New Zealand. “But I did not like their buying methods. When my produce arrived in New Zealand they auctioned it. Their starting price was what they took and anything above that was what I got, and with such a system they were always sure to make money but not me, and that is why I always wanted to set up my own distribution outlet.”

Minolu said that things began to fall into place last year. “My son resigned from his job with the New Zealand Inland Revenue and wanted to get into business with me. I have just about had enough of the squash industry. I had been growing for a number of years but when I applied for an exporting licence last year I was refused, and I am not too sure if I will ever grow squash again because I think I will concentrate on root crops. I have been a commercial farmer for a number of years. I have learnt how to cut costs and to have high yields, and I don’t grow anything less than two acres.”

Minolu was optimistic about the future of agricultural exports from Tonga, and he sincerely believed that things would take off soon, considering the incentives that the government had given to the growers. “Growers are exempt from income tax, and their farming equipment, such as tractors, is duty free and they can also get loans from the bank,” he said.

Minolu wanted to expand his exporting network to Australia soon.

Another exporter who believed that Tonga could maintain a stable Foreign Reserve from the  exporting  of agricultural produce is Pousima Afeaki of the Tinopai Farm.

Pousima started exporting in 1995 with one container of assorted produce, including talo, manioke, ‘ufi  (yams) and coconut. By 1996 his exports were up to 13 containers, and by 1997 it had jumped to 65 containers. Pousima said that he expected the figure to continue to grow in 1998 but because of the dry weather, which affected his patches of talo, manioke and yams the yield was low. “And this year because of Cora, I think exports will remain at 55 containers.”

Pousima said he got into farming without any farming background because he could see: “the opportunities, and the challenges.”

It has not always been easy. “The major problem with farming in Tonga is the lack of water, even if you have a well, which I do, but well water is not good for farming.” Pousima said that it was unfortunate that there was just not enough rainfall in Tonga for the growing of the talo Tonga, “because at the moment no one can supply the demand for talo Tonga, from New Zealand and Australia, and also from Pago Pago and Apia. The going price at the moment is $1 a kilo.”

Last year the King told the Matangi Tonga that he wanted Tonga College to plant talo Tonga in the swamp areas of Tongatapu for the Samoan market, and to bring in money for their school, and to increase the Foreign Reserve. This project has yet to be realised.

Being a newcomer to farming and the exporting of agricultural produce Pousima said he had been very careful in selecting the kind of crop that he should grow. “It is something that Tongan growers must be very careful about, because a wrong decision could mean the loss of a lot of money and time in growing something that is not commercially viable. Yam bean is one example—a number of growers got into it, only to find out that the market for yam bean was very small.”

Over the years Pousima has learnt the hardships of farming where success and failure depends largely on the weather. Being a commercial grower with a market to supply he has had to diversify to make ends meet. After trials and errors he found why Tongans have always grown ‘ufi, “because it can survive the dry weather better than other root crops.”

Pousima’s approach to export differs from others because he exports directly to importers in New Zealand and Australia who supply the supermarkets. A third of his exports go to New Zealand and the rest to Australia.

As his exporting business grows he can no longer meet the demand from his own farm and therefore he has formed alliances with other commercial growers to whom he gives allocations. Pousima said that during December he was supposed to have exported eight containers of yam, but because of the cyclone he managed to export only two.

“The demand for yam is high in both New Zealand and Australia, taking into account that there are 150,000 Pacific Islanders in New Zealand. The market is huge in Australia with 300,000 Asians in Sydney and the same number in Melbourne.

A new crop that he will market in March is the paholo, a type of yam, which Pousima said was becoming very popular with the Asians in New Zealand and Australia who mash it up and fry it. Due to market demand Pousima harvested his paholo early to make sure that they were of a certain size and texture.

Since he diversified his exports, Pousima now is making coconut as his “bread and butter” and with his small operation he is finding it difficult at times to meet the demand. He is buying coconut already husked at 12 seniti each, “but if the owner of a plantation piles the coconuts together then we come in and do the husking I pay nine seniti per coconut, but if we have to do the collection and the husking, I pay seven seniti per coconut.”

Looking into the future Pousima said that his operation was now in a state of consolidation, and he would remain with root crops, “it is easier for me to handle, and the quarantine requirement is not as strict as that on vegetables and watermelons. If they find one fruit fly in a container of watermelon, they will destroy the whole shipment, and that is too risky for me.”

Though the Tinopai Farm over the years has expanded its operation Pousima said it was still a family business, “and I am going against all odds to avoid forming a formal business entity, as a matter of principal.”

Pousima believed that exporting is a business most suitable for the private sector and that government involve-ment in export should end with the issuing of export licences. He disagreed with the demand for squash growers to be registered, “it is an infringement of the constitutional right of growers to do whatever they want to do with the fruit of their work,” he said.

To further boost the export of Tongan produce Pousima suggested for the Reserve Bank to instruct commercial banks to set aside a certain amount every year to be lent to agricultural businesses, “not necessarily with low interest rates, but just to make some funds available,” he said. “The Tonga Development Bank lends the most to agricultural businesses but unfortunately it is a slow process, whereas commercial banks are faster.”

Pousima also believed that the involvement of the quarantine department in quality control was too risky, “because it could become a liability for government. Quality control should be left for the exporters, they know what the market demand is, and they are the ones that will bear the consequences if they export very poor quality products.”

Paul Karalus of the Fua ‘o e Fonua farm supplies is making big drive to boost agricultural exports from Tonga. Paul has three big projects up his sleeves, which should all be in operation before the middle of the year. By March he should have his own fumigation plant working, and a tissue culture facility, and later on a food processing plant will be set up.

With his fumigation plant Paul will start exporting watermelon to New Zealand on a regular basis. Growers know that the market is there but there have always been problems with meeting New Zealand quarantine regulations with regards to planting and the fumigation process. It is something that Paul, who is also the president of the Tonga Chamber of Commerce, believed could be better carried out by the private sector.

Another interesting new project is tissue culturing. Paul said he had been playing around with the idea for some time and in 1995 formed the Tupulekina Technologies Ltd. and a feasibility study was done by the South Pacific Project Facility. The start of the project was delayed due to a number of factors, such as financing, the sluggish nature of the Tongan economy and the need to ensure that there was a major market for the cultures.

The project took a sudden turn early in 1998 when Tupulekina Technologies and Eastern and Global (N.Z.) Ltd. of New Zealand joined forces and formed the Pacific Biotech Ltd., a Tongan registered company which is a 50-50 joint venture.

Paul said that the first major activity of Pacific Biotech Ltd. was to establish a tissue culture facility in Nuku‘alofa to begin production by March. “With the tissue culture facility we will be producing talo, banana and yam plantlets. The impact on yields from plantations will be enormous, for example at the moment 10 to 15 per cent of the yam that is harvested goes for the pulopula (replanting) but with tissue culture, only one per cent will go on pulopula,” he said. “In addition they will be producing cultures of cut flowers for growers in New Zealand.”

Paul said that with Greg Keymer, the owner of Eastern and Global they had identified a full laboratory in Auckland, and the owner Lynley Watson had offered her services to transfer and set up the lab at Tonga’s Small Industries Centre.

The establishment of a local food processing plant Paul said would solve the problem with growers having to worry about marketing and exporting, “it will leave them to concentrate in what they know best—growing.”

Paul believed that with all his projects in operation it would help streamline the production of Tongan agricultural produce for export. He believed that he had provided the missing link for the establishment of a healthy agricultural export industry, and now growers could concentrate and take full advantage of the many incentives that had been given them by government. With the restructuring of the Ministry of Agriculture, particularly the Extension Service, he said Tonga should be able to feed the Pacific with talo, ‘ufi, manioke, and watermelon, and then wash it all down with a bowl of Tongan kava.