BY SAMIE WAIKORI
AUKI
MARKET Access working partners or company members of Pacific Horticulture and Agricultural Marketing Access (Phama) Plus programme have promoted their products in Auki, Malaita province.
The partners are Solomon Tropical Product (STP), Kokonut Production Solomon Islands (KPSI), SolAgro and Cathliro Solomon Islands (CSI).
The products were promoted and displayed for the public of Auki yesterday ranging from coconut soaps, virgin coconut oils in varieties, ngali nuts also in varieties of products and chocolates.
Leader of the Phama Plus team in Auki, Former premier of Malaita province, Mr Peter Chanel Ramohia told this paper yesterday that the promotion is part of the Market Access working group under the Phama Plus programme.
He said the purpose of the programme is to work with government and private sector in these countries to access markets to Australia and New Zealand and even outside world.
Ramohia said in implementing the programme in the country, they work through committees established under different sector stakeholders where identification has made on them as top marketing commodities. They include cocoa, coconut, Ngali nut and timber.
One of the challenges these partners always face is on how they (companies) could sell their products. Not only internationally, but domestically.
Ramohia said to address the challenge, one way is to go out to provincial centres and market the products.
He said that this is part of promoting the products and to show people the end-product of raw materials which came from them as beginners of the supply chain.
Ramohia explained that the Phama Plus programme is the second phase of the Phama programme where it targets Pacific island countries to engage in export of primary products.
He said the programme is funded by Australia and New Zealand governments and is implemented in six Pacific countries include, Solomon Islands, PNG, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.
