From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 1, June 2001.

We are used to seeing people queuing up to get money from the bank, and pushing themselves in to buy a loaf of bread from the bakery, but now customers are fighting to buy bricks to build their houses.

This is the case in Tongatapu today as more businesses and more private people are building, and the local brick makers can’t meet the demand.  

Willy Taufatofua, the supervisor of the Vete Concrete Block Division said that every morning they have pushing and shoving by people who want to make sure that they have enough bricks to take home. “But by July we should be able to meet the need of individual home builders.”

Willy said that when their new brick making machine comes into production by July and their production will go up from 7,500 to 10,000 blocks per day, which should be ample to meet the needs of the individual.

Willy said that the demand for bricks for big projects such as the Ha‘apai High School was being met by the other brick producers, Pili Quarry and E. M. Jones Ltd., but Vete Concrete was concentrating on meeting the needs of the individual builder.