Further assistance is coming Fiji’s way through New Zealand. This time it’s in the dairy industry.

New Zealand High Commissioner to Fiji Mark Ramsden said they would focus on helping the Fijian dairy industry.

“One of the major projects would be working with agriculture and trying to strengthen and build up small holder dairy production,” Mr Ramsden said.

He said this was an area which was thriving in New Zealand and they wanted to assist Fiji.

“New Zealand has a lot of expertise in this area. It is an industry in Fiji that is going okay, but it needs a bit of support.

“In conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, New Zealand is developing a programme of support for smallholder dairy producers with the objective of boosting milk volume and quality, and improving farmers’ income.

“We have had a team in the country designing what we would do to support this and they would come back early in the New Year and we will see some things start rolling quite quickly to support small holder dairy farming.”

In New Zealand, dairy is a major part of their economy and is a NZ$11billion (16.86bn) industry

New Zealand is the world’s eighth largest milk producer.

Mr Ramsden said it was exciting times ahead for Fiji and New Zealand and they were looking at other ways to assist.

“There are a number of other highlights, one is building back the development programme or the partnership between New Zealand and Fiji Government.

“One of the things where we can really support Fiji is the sustainable economic development over the next few years,” he said.

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