Last week the Solomon Star newspaper reported on the possibility of taro being exported once a secure market overseas was obtained.
This was the news item that got my attention, quote.
Goshen Enterprise Limited in Malaita Province eyes its first taro export by the end of this year.
Speaking to Solomon Star Auki in an exclusive interview yesterday Goshen Enterprise Ltd Operational Manager Levite Luciano Maesimae said Goshen Enterprise Ltd is supported by 24 out-growers throughout the province.
Mr.Maesimae said the aim now is to secure a market overseas that Goshen Enterprise could supply them with taro from Malaita.
"We already have 24 taro out-growers in Malaita who are working on large taro farms to support our supply.
"With our work on the ground, we expect to send our first export by the end of this year if things go according to plan."
End of quote.
I was left rather puzzled by the reference to the need to secure an overseas market for taro for I believed the export of taro had been going on for some time to Australia in particular.
In December 2019, the then Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister, Hon Jeremiah Manele told Parliament that his Ministry was allocating 2 million dollars in budget support for taro and cassava exports
The export of those products seemed very much on the cards and the world Trade Organisation was funding the project through the National Trade and Economic Council.
Two years earlier, in 2016, I had read in one of the local papers that the Solomon Islands government had allocated $70 million as a stimulus package to local farmers to boost production and exports. I seem to recall that package had the backing of the FAO,
I kept on file at the time this news article, which I will quote.
Three tones of taro from the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal will be exported to Brisbane in Australia this Friday.
Thanks to Mrs. Upu Kaukui of Salmoa Farm Produce who said the consignment would be her 3rd times to export taro to Australia.
"I started with 800 kg of taro about a year ago and 1200 kg some months later," Upu Kaukui told agriculture officers who went to see preparation for the consignment in Ranadi, east of Honiara.
Mrs. Kaukui, a Samoan who married to a Solomon Islander said she is looking at exporting yam and kong kong taro (karuvera) next year. She said the problem is that some crops, such as yam, are seasonal and they are available only during certain times of the year.
The family business, Solmoa Farm Produce, is the first to penetrate the Australian market as far as marketing of taro is concerned.
The owner of Solmoa Farm Produce, Mrs. Kaukui, said her agent in Australia is her brother.
"Demand from our clients in Australia is beyond the 3,000 kg that we are ready to send this Friday on a cargo plane," Mrs. Kaukui explained.
Salmoa Farm Produce is encouraging farmers to come forward if they have food crops such as taro, yam and kong kong taro.
A local agent who collected taro from the Weather Coast said that the more than 3 tones of taro had come only from two villages. The agent said there were other villages in the weather coast of Guadalcanal which have large gardens of taro.
Villagers, the agent said, were pleased to have access to easy market to sell their produces without going through the hard times to come to Honiara markets.
End of quote.
Source: Scoop News.
Having read that story in 2016, I had been under the impression that the export of taro from the Solomon Islands had been ongoing to Australia.
In 2017, Prime Minister Sogavara told the then New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully that the Solomons was wanting to export root crops to New Zealand such as cassava, taro, yams, panna and kava.
Mr. Sogavara said he knew New Zealand had a huge market for such crops with its large population of Pacific Islanders.
At the time, the Prime Minister pointed out that Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji were exporting such crops into New Zealand.
It is understood Mr. McCully said he would raise the request but said the bio-security arrangements between the two countries would need to be secured first.
Is it safe to assume the bio=security arrangements were not resolved and root crops from the Solomon Islands still blocked from entry?
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
