Local market needs more veges in off-season [1]
Saturday, August 30, 2003 - 10:00. Updated on Friday, February 19, 2016 - 14:06.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 2, August 2003.
Tonga imports $6 million worth of vegetables annually to meet demand, a surprising amount for a country with an annual trade deficit of about $90 million, which has its main export strength in agricultural produce.
Mana Latu, who has been a market gardener for 29 years, said that the main problem with commercial vegetable gardening in Tonga was that there were just not enough growers, “to supply the local market throughout the year. The off season is the dry and hot time of the year, and growers are lazy to grow anything when the weather is too hot and the ground is very dry, but that is when the big supermarkets are importing vegetables in bulk.”
Fertile soil
For local vegetable growers to retain their lion’s share of the local market, that has been nipped away by overseas vegetable growers, Mana would like to see local vegetable growers form an association.
“Growers will then be able to help one another to improve production and to ensure a continuation of supply throughout the year.”
Mana wants to be able to supply the daily needs of Tongans, “at an affordable price.”
Because Tonga cannot meet the demand for vegetables year-round, the government has brought in a Chinese vegetable expert, Professor Li, to teach Agricultural Science and Technology at Tonga College for two years.
Professor Li believes that local growers can supply the demand of the local market all the year around, “there is a need for more new growers, and for growers to work harder. The soil is fertile, there is enough land and the climate is favourable. It is just a matter of encouraging and educating local growers to improve their productivity.”
Irrigation
Li highly recommended that Tonga should install an irrigation system, “because though the soil is fertile but it has a weak capacity to hold water.”
Li also pointed out that expensive chemicals, fertilisers and seeds, discouraged people from growing vegetables.
Professor Li said that if Tonga is interested in growing vegetables for export there was a need to reorganise the growers. “Tongan vegetable growing is carried out by individual families, and it is fine that a family has its own plot of land and can grow their own vegetables for their own use and to sell in the local market, but for export it is not possible.
“They need a complex organisation, where some are responsible for production, some organise transportation. Individual growers can’t grow for export on their own.”
While Professor Li is in Tonga one crop that he wants to grow is rice. “Tonga’s climate is suitable for rice. Rice grows in dry land and it should grow well here,” he said.