Hon. Dr Viliami Latu and Mr Scott McLennan

Tonga is expanding its tourism industry branding, 'The Kingdom of Tonga, the True South Pacific' to include the marketing of its agricultural produces overseas.

Newly designed carton boxes for the export of Tongan agricultural produces to New Zealand, Australia and the United Sates was launched yesterday, 19 February by the Minister of Commerce, Tourism and Labour  Hon. Dr Viliami Latu and the First Secretary of the Australian High Commission, Scott McLennan at the Dateline Hotel.

Dr Viliami Latu said that the newly designed carton boxes follows the main tourism brand - ‘The Kingdom of Tonga, the True South Pacific’, with the aim to consolidate Tonga’s marketing profile and appearance at the international markets, not only for tourism but to promote the quality products and services from the Kingdom of Tonga.

He said that the multi-user boxes can be used to pack both frozen and fresh products, including fruits and vegetables. "I thank the Government of Australian through PHAMA for this great assistance," he said.

PHAMA operates in Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Phase one ran from 2010-13 and this second phase runs for 4-years from 2014-17.

Dr Latu said lack of proper packaging limited Tonga’s competitiveness in key markets which withheld Tonga from exporting to formal and established markets such as supermarkets and formal retail points in New Zealand, Australia and the US.

He said Tonga’s exports in the past predominantly focused on the informal market networks, such as the Tongan communities and church groups overseas which had been proven to have placed Tonga at a very narrow export market, in term of volumes and values, and it was also unreliable and costly to both the exporters and farmers.

"Packaging plays an important role in increasing the market access of Tonga’s agricultural commodities, through protecting, preserving and presenting the final products that meets the requirements of the target consumers and buyers. It also helps to position Tonga’s products at the market on top of our main competitors."

Pousima Afeaki of Tinopai Farm, and Deputy Chairman of the Tonga Market Access Working Group said that in 2012 they agreed that by not having good packaging carton boxes was a barrier for the exporting of Tonga's produces.

He said that at the time Tongan agricultural produces such as talos, coconuts and 'ufi were exported in ordinary 20 kilos sacks, and therefore Tongan exporters were not able to supply the formal retail market, where small size attractive packaging was needed.

Pousima said that a Working Group was set up with packaging as one of its priorities, and last year in August the Packaging Sub-Committee launched plastic bags with Tongan designs for the export of talo, manioke and 'ufi.

"This year the committee developed carton boxes with the same Tongan designs to match the plastic bags", said Pousima.

 A procedure on how exporters would gain access to the cartons would be worked out over the coming weeks according to a criteria set by the committee.

Exporters

Lupe Goulton of the Lotopoha Exports at Kolonga said the carton boxes would definitely make a difference in exporting their agricultural produces.

“We wish for similar projects on necessary equipment that we can share where we are needed to meet specifications for orders from markets in NZ and Australia in the near future. These cartons would give us the opportunity to more markets ensured of quality products from Tonga and we have confirmed the difference by using the designed plastic bags to export our frozen produce to NZ. We anticipate the same effect from these  cartons when used.”

Lotopoha exports primarily frozen cassava, taro and yam to their market in New Zealand.