Fiji must

organise its food supplies'

From a Suva correspondent The economic pincers are c in Fiji, and many people are pa ticularly concerned at the slo but steady increase in food cost It is reflected in the case of son staple foods such as dalo, yan and similar foods sold not I

weight but by bundles, or fi:

sold by size.

THE prices may not have increas< appreciably, but bundles ha decreased in size, and so have tl fish offered at the old prices.

But the real increase is in t] cost of foodstuffs imported from tl increasing cost-of-living countri such as Britain, Australia and Ne Zealand, and in the cost of clothii which comes from the same source Middle and lower wage earners a the people who notice it most.

All this highlights the importan of Fiji’s own food production. R cently some people have been lookii at it, but far more organisation needed.

Beginning of markets

Many years ago now, during t] latter years of his term of offi as Mayor of Suva, the late Sir Alpc Barker was instrumental in erectii the Suva Municipal Market, 5 Alport’s idea being that the produo should rent stalls and sell his produ direct.

It was a good idea but it didi work out, because producers cou not spare the time for themselv or their families to stand behind stall in Suva, and so the middlenw came into the market.

The markets today perform useful service, not the least in cres ing a large and varied display < fruit and vegetables and an eve expanding curio section for tl benefit of visiting tourists. But tl real value of the markets to residen could be greatly increased if s energetic marketing board were be formed, and a comprehensr survey made of the whole system ■

troducing and marketing locally jrown food in Fiji.

Some form of rationalisation in he production and marketing of ood seems to be both necessary and irgent, for it is all very much catch is-catch-can today.

Until fairly recently Fiji had to ely largely on New Zealand for aany of its English style vegetables, uch as cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, imatoes. Then it was discovered hat from the outer islands such as 'aveuni and Kadavu and from Beqa, hose vegetables could be produced early the whole year round and ometimes all the year round.

Market gluts

One of the results was that the larket in the cool season became lutted with English cabbage (which ould be grown all the year round) nd they had to be unloaded at give way prices or as pig food.

Recently a Fijian agricultural fficer reported that on Kadavu the ijians were concentrating so much n copra that they even had to nport yaqona (kava) from other lands a remarkable development hen you consider how important > the Fijian is his yaqona. A new idustry started on Kadavu had to ;ly on deep-freeze imported vege tbles brought from Suva!

Onions have been imported into iji all the year round from New ealand or Canada. It is only recently lat onions equal to the imported ties have been grown on the east last of Viti Levu, with suitable ;eds provided by the Department £ Agriculture.

Certainly, vegetables grown in the lallow soil on the soapstone hills •ound Suva Peninsula are very ior, which is the reason why hinese shopkeepers advertise their mported vegetables from the vitamin rich soils of New Zealand”, ut it is not everybody who can lord these prices, and thus this not the way to solve the colony’s :onomic problems.

If Fiji had a marketing board it luld ensure that each district planted wording to its own climatic con itions, so that there could be a eady flow of produce. Both con imer and producer could be assured I prices and the producer would ius have an incentive to plant for a lore stable market. ► See also letter from Timoci Radaveta, Beqa, in "From the Islands Press", p. 76.