23 March 2012: The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has announced it has completed a baseline data survey of young coconut production capability and future prospects in the Cakaudrove Province, Fiji. The initiative was funded by the EU, under the Increasing Agricultural Commodity Trade (IACT) project, which aims to strengthen the Pacific country export capacity in the agriculture, forestry and aquaculture sectors.

According to SPC, copra and crude coconut oil represent major Pacific exports, and the price of both commodities is currently experiencing an upward trend. The data from the survey will be made available to investors interested in the expansion of Fiji’s coconut industry.

The four-year IACT project is operational in the 15 Pacific members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries: the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The project employs agricultural export supply chain interventions, and assists commercial ventures and producer groups to become export-oriented, market-driven enterprises, with the aim of consistently supplying overseas markets with competitive agriculture, forestry and aquaculture products. [SPC Press Release]