JMO Exporters (Fiji) Limited plans to not only run a business, but invest in the growth of the Navua area.

This is how the company’s director, Mul Prasad, sees his $6.5 million investment.

“We are not only looking at the interest of the business but also the growth of the Navua area and its people, so everyone benefits,” he said.

Mr Prasad, 63, is a Fijian-born businessman but lives in Australia. He also has a business in Australia known as JMO Food Distribution PTY Limited.

Mr Prasad said he chose Navua because it was his birth place.

“The property which I have invested in is my grandfather’s. Then it was passed to my parents.

“After being away overseas and the prime minister Bainimarama was saying for ex-Fijians to come back and invest, that’s when I decided to make use of the property.”

JMO Exporters (Fiji) Limited is a food processing and exporting company which began operation last September.

The company exports root crops such as dalo, cassava and yams, and many others, vegetables plus seafoods such as fish and tilapia.

Mr Prasad said they were getting attention from customers abroad for the variety of goods they exported.

The main export markets are Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

According to Mr Prasad, they were searching for potential and interested markets as well.

“But we would want Government’s financial support.”

The Navua-based company employs about 40 people in the Navua area.

“We look for supply of raw materials from the Navua farmers creating market for their root crops and we also provide employment,” he added.

“Both these are injections into the local economy as our slogan clearly states, ‘Taking Fiji to the World’.

“We are putting Fiji on the map and more specifically, Navua in the international market.”

He said because of the frequent bad weather and the disasters that affected Fiji, the supply of products were very low, compared with the export demand.

He said: “We have plans to set up factories and operate in other parts of the country, especially in the Western and Northern divisions and we also plan to supply to the local supermarkets.”

He has only one company operating so far in the country with plans to expand.