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    Commercial commodity forums to drive change

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    By Anita Roberts

    Copyright dailypost

    Commercial commodity forums to drive change

    The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Biosecurity (MALFB) will host commodity forums focused on driving change in the production and trading pathways for key national commercial commodities.

    Farmers, processors, stakeholders, and policy makers from the agriculture, livestock, and forestry sectors will meet in Port Vila and Luganville to review achievements, address challenges and propose solutions for improvements.

    The forum for small livestock is scheduled from Monday to Tuesday next week in Luganville, followed by the forum on cattle on October 2 to 3. The forums for kava will take place from October 7 to 8, followed by cacao the next two days, root crops on October 13 in Port Vila including forestry on October 14.

    Director General (DG) of MALFB, Timothy Tumukon, said the forums align with the ministry’s ‘Island Focus’ approach for the next years, where efforts to boost the production of these commodities will be concentrated on specific islands, rather than across the whole country as in previous years.

    This shift aims to change farmers from semi-commercial, where they sell and consume part of their produce, to a more formal business model, he said.

    “We want to help farmers enter this space, but there needs to be a clear plan on what kind of support to offer. It’s in line with the newly introduced Agriculture Business Permit System, which aims to transition farmers into the commercial sector, enabling them to operate and contribute to the formal economy of Vanuatu,” said the DG.

    DG Tumukon said the main goal is to develop these sectors to increase production and meet both local and international demands.

    He added that efforts being concentrated in Santo aligned with the government’s vision of making Santo the country’s economic hub.

    The Ministry of Trades, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office are expected to participate in discussions to contribute to the development of the ministry’s corporate plan for the next five years.

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