Horticulture in Fiji Island: challenges and opportunities.

Fiji is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean which enjoys tropical climate most of the year round with minimal extremes. Agriculture is identified as the foundation of Fiji's economy. Horticulture is one of the largest growing sub-sectors of agriculture and holds potential for continued growth. The potential for Fiji's horticulture sector is in production for local consumption and export of high value commodities. Fiji needs a wide variety of tropical fruits and vegetables for its fast expanding tourism sector to supply high local hotel demand. Horticulture is the only sub-sector identified within agriculture with increasing exports of a large variety of products. Potential horticultural commodities for public use, value added processing and export include papaya, tomatoes, pineapple, coconut, duruka, mango, chilies, banana, cassava, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, ginger, cocoa, yaqona, taco, cassava and other root crops. Further growth potential in horticulture is identified in the form of increasing access to new markets through new modes of transportation, processing and packing; increasing productivity, improving quality, developing year-round production and introducing new crops; and improving access to new production techniques, information and high quality production inputs. Numerous opportunities lie in Fiji's horticulture for national and foreign investors and also the qualified human resource to find suitable employment.