The Government is expecting exports to surpass up to $2.1 billion this year. Reports show export incomes rose by 11.5 per cent the past year equating to $2.1 billion.
During the launch of the 2015 Westpac Prime Minister’s Exporter of the Year Awards last week, the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Faiyaz Siddiq Koya, said these figures are expected to rise in the years to come.
Some of our main exports are sugar, garments, gold.
Our main export destinations are United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other Pacific island countries.
So this week we feature some of our prominent exporters and discuss some of the challenges they go through.
What challenges does your company face in terms of exporting?
The main challenge we are currently facing is through Papua New Guinea and is in terms of direct shipping from Lautoka or Suva to Port Moresby. That would be one of my biggest challenges.
Bhavesh Kumar
RC Manubhai Group of Companies, Director
It is important to know the right people you are dealing with in the other countries. Then your products have to be just right so the market will just come back to you automatically. You don’t have to wait for it. But it will take time.
Dharmendra Parmar
Deluxe Footwear, Managing Director
When it comes to exporting challenges for exports first is getting market access. The other is to be able to meet the quality standards through manufacturing in Fiji. Which has to work together to meet the requirements of the markets we are trying to enter. That’s the main one.
Kalpanesh Solanki
Ranjit Garments Limited, Director
The challenge for us in exporting is packaging. It is important for us to have proper packaging and the design that suits the international market and also for our product the ingredients for the requirement for different countries and some of the things they have are these organic licences and to meet those requirements. So it is important to meet the International standards.
Tomo Zukoshi
Adi Chocolate, Director / Co-founder
Our main challenge at the moment is to find the character in staff to increase our performance. Better performance leads to better exports so currently that’s the only challenge that we have.
Veeramalai Wanarajan
Intimate Apparel Limited, Managing Director