The potential of Solomon Islands agricultural based products will be eyed by Chinese investors
For some considerable time, I have often written to the local media about the potential rewards from cultivating and marketing good quality kava, given the increasing demand on the world stage, particularly in the United States and, more recently in New Zealand and possibly in Australia where importation of Kava is to be less rigid.
I am glad, today, to have read that Charles Tuti, a Kava farmer from Malaita has benefitted substantially from kava he has grown and sold.
Mr. Tuti reportedly wants other farmers to start planting kava to take advantage of the growing market.
Over the years, I also about the potential of growing ginger, vanilla, pineapples and manufacturing pineapple juice, coconuts (and coconut juice), cocoa , coffee, strawberries, bananas (sold as chips), mangoes, tomatoes ,noni fruit and leafy salad crops, especially those that can easily be raised in simple hydroponic beds. Also, I have advocated honey production to meet demands and encouraged the cultivation and marketing of fresh flowers and orchids.
As I think about the potential of such agricultural based products from an export point of view, I have not yet seen, disappointedly, the response I would have thought necessary from the government’s commodities export division to boost local products, but consider the potential of kava, ginger, vanilla, cocoa, coffee and fruits and juices, perhaps even honey, will not be lost on the Chinese who might very well be interested in what their investors might wish to be involved in exporting from the Solomon Islands to the huge Chinese markets.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
