Holding on to promise ... cocoa farmer Ilai Nabobo
MOVES are underway to revive the cocoa industry in Tailevu with the aid of a
Swedish non-government organisation.
The province has embarked on an exchange project with Cocoa Bello, a Swedish
NGO, to help farmers in the province cultivate cocoa.
Spokesman for the Tailevu Province Cocoa Growers and Producers Co-operative
Association Ltd, Joseva Serulagilagi said the exchange project was aimed at
increasing exports in the industry, which has been in decline since the early
90s.
The exchange project aims to create a greater understanding of the need for
sustainable cocoa cultivation and fair trade within the cocoa industry.
Mr Serulagilagi said cocoa farmers were exporting countries but small
quantities and the exchange project would help farmers earn money.
"Farmers get very little after their farm produce is exported. Most of the
money is used to buy farming materials," said Mr Serulagilagi. He said as part
of the exchange project, people from the Swedish NGO would spend two weeks with
farmers in Tailevu to develop technology.
"Farmers will also go to Sweden and the cocoa will be used by the Sweden
people to make chocolate," he said.
Mr Serulagilagi said many farmers were showing initiative in the project,
even former cocoa farmers who had left the industry after it went into decline.
Cocoa Bellos chairman Fabian Rimfors is in the country to work out a cultural
and knowledge exchange between the cocoa industries in the two countries.
"The reciprocal exchange will consist of two delegates, one Swedish and one
Fijian, which will visit each country respectively for two weeks," he said.
Mr Rimfors said the delegations would have representatives from the industry
in both countries and would cover the whole process of chocolate manufacturing,
from farming to retailing.
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