Today I was interviewing an Aunt of mine who has been a Suva market vendor for the last two years and how is she is managing to sell produce at the market without having a farm to supply her daily. In Suva most ethnic Chinese vendors and some Indo-Fijians are farmers themselves and sell their produce from their farm, usually after doing wholesaling in the early hours of the morning from 4 am to 6.30am.
I was interested in her Gobi or English cabbage which she buys from trucks coming all the way from the Sigatoka Valley. This wholesalers are not all farmers and some are middle men who buy produce from farm gates at low prices and cart them to Suva. One can imagine the cost incurred in the cartage and its effect on the price of the produce. I will not elaborate on the price as yet.
Who will bear this cost? This is a good question which you can answer yourself. Not only we can speak of costs but rather also the freshness of the produce comes into question considering the distance it has traveled. Farmers in the Central division need to attend to this issue and try farming with volume and quality so that produce sold are much cheaper and fresher compared to those from the western side of Viti Levu. One can argue that western farmers have the capacity to produce in large volumes compared to us in the central.
This lies the challenge to identify why they have the competitive edge over us. Upon close attention, these western farmers generally farm on flat land and use machines for ploughing the land. In the central its hard to find a pair of bullocks in Waibau or Wailase as indigenous or the i-taukei are the substitute. Frankly speaking its a pity to see mostly i-Tauukei ploughing the land for a very low return. Well its better for them to be labors rather than being their own boss. I once heard that farm labors in these areas often compete daily on who ploughs the most chains because the more the merrier.
Back to our topic of discussion with the cost of intermediaries between the producers and the consumers, the ICT revolution must be capitalized to its maximum benefit. In Fiji its rare to find farmers like me on the internet and having our presence felt. Even though social media awareness and usage thrives in Fiji its use is unproductive. Meaning its only used for entertainment and socializing whereas in the world users have put them to good use. The use of social media in Agriculture can have a positive effect on the costs of intermediaries. Youths in Fiji should use Facebook not only for social purposes but rather a more productive way by promoting agriculture and other areas of interest which can bolster their future.
Suva market is by far the biggest market in Fiji and this is why farmers from around the country run to with their produce due to high turnover rate. Someone in Suva should have a head count of all that enter the market on a Saturday to know roughly the number of consumers and vendors who are trading. I might do this exercise with our farmers network one-day.
There is a future in agriculture and youths in the central need to give it a try, take the first step, till and plant the land. Put their energy to good use if they are not occupied. Also their needs to be alot of awareness program conducted by stakeholders to promote this industry to Youths in Fiji.
AgroNet Fiji has formulated a marketing strategy to counter this costs and minimize the price of produce which customers buy for. Not only that, we have also farmed organically to try and feed our customers to be, healthy foods free from synthetic chemicals which farmers are generally using. Our produce procural prior to being harvested, fresh ca!! Vacava That!! keep informed via this blog.
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