Over 400 farmers have been assisted by New Valley Produce.

This has been made possible through the concept of contract farming in partnership with New Valley Produce and FijiAgromarketing.

Company’s chief executive officer Mohammed Mukhtar Khan said in excess of 400 farmers have already planted and supplied bongo chilli, cassava, dalo, rourou leaves, bele, pumpkin, watermelon, peanut, cow peas, etc and more through contract farming.

Carrots Cultivation
“Within the next couple of months the company, through its cluster of farmers, could potentially start supplying carrots locally,” he added.

“Carrot farming in our cluster in Navutusila District will be a history in itself.

“This project will be done in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fiji Agro Marketing and New Valley Produce, within our cluster and we are certain that it will produce the result as we expect.”

“There has been lots of work done and we are ready to plant in a few weeks.”

“We are also setting up a nursery on the highland which will germinate the seedlings for this project.”

“If things go as per plan, New Valley Produce will supply carrots locally and will export as well to the neighboring island countries.”

He said there was a huge demand for carrots everywhere.

Mr Khan said New Valley Produce was also in the process of planting 2.3 million plants of dalo which would generate around $2 million worth of revenue for the highlanders every year.

“We are in the discussion with Fiji Development Bank (FDB) to see how the project can be funded by them,” Mr Khan said.

Mr Khan added FDB had played a paramount role in financing the project.

“We have a signed contract to supply 120 tonnes of processed dalo and 40 tonnes of processed cassava every month.”

“We want our cluster to supply us the dalo so that we don’t have to buy from anywhere else,” he said.

Mr Khan said with his exposure to countries like Dubai, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Japan, New Valley has signed an agreement with a European Union funded Singapore based company.

“They have agreed to market New Valley Produce into 150 countries which have over 20,000 potential buyers,” he said.

New Valley Produce chilli farm in Sabeto, Nadi.

About New Valley Produce
“New Valley Produce was established with the mission to assist farmers who don’t have access to market,” Mr Khan said.

“The problem in Fiji was consistency in supply because there are very less commercial farmers hence the idea of cluster farming was introduced in 2016 via New Valley Produce to bring in consistency in supply.”

“The farmers in this cluster are contracted under New Valley Produce. By the end of 2022, we are planning to have 7000 farmers in our cluster from different regions within Fiji Islands,” he said.

Mr Khan highlighted the company director operations Vinesh Rai contributed a wealth of knowledge to the company. Mr Rai is also the advisory councilor for Sabeto.

New Valley Produce chief executive officer Mohammed Mukhtar Khan and New Valley Produce director operations Vinesh Rai.

About Contract Farming
“Contract farming is a concept which is working wonders for us and it has been a concept which has been very successful everywhere it has been implemented,” Mr Khan said.

“With the concept, farmers are made aware of what to plant, based on market requirement and also in what quantity.”

“With this contract farming, farmers have been given fixed prices for the duration of the contract.”

He said every contracted farmer would know how much they would earn before they plant crops.

“It is immaterial what happens in the market with the price, contract farmer price is fixed for three years.”

“Without a contract, the farmer doesn’t have any control on the price and it’s dictated by the buyer or market price.”

“The concept of contract farming is meant for the deprived farmers who don’t have access to market and fortunately the mandate of Fiji Agromarketing is the same which is to provide market access to farmers who don’t have access to market,” he said.

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