SOLOMON ISLANDS: Fresh ideas from Solfresh Products
Solfresh Products is one of only a few registered commercial agri-businesses operating in the Solomons, specialising in farming layer birds for egg production and in cocoa exports.
“The best use of the Grant we received from BLP is to increase the number of rural farms supplying cocoa beans for export. Times are tough in the Solomons, and most of these farmers are women and youths contributing in any way they can to their family income. I have one disabled farmer who never lets his condition prevent him from moving forward, it’s inspiring. We are now processing roughly 5 tonnes of beans every fortnight, with most of the money earned being returned to our farmers in rural areas.”
Willie continues, “The cocoa export business is now doing very well since BLP stepped in to support us. The best part is that there are still a lot of rural farmers we have not yet reached out to. Given the tough economic climate here in the Solomons, the people we are working with are largely forgotten by the government, despite the fact that these rural communities own the resources and drive the economy.”
BLP has a strong focus on improving outcomes for underserved communities in the Pacific such as women, youths, the disabled, and those living in rural areas, and works to encourage SME businesses which support these groups. Solfresh Products clearly contributes to supporting this objective by expanding its reach to a greater number of cocoa farmers, many of whom are women and youths.
Willie’s future plan includes developing a large scale market garden to address the endemic and increasingly unhealthy eating pattens of the local people, largely brought about by post-Covid rampant inflation increasing the cost of fresh imported vegetables by an unaffordable margin.
Willie’s trial market garden was very successful, producing fresh vegetables for the athletes attending the recent Pacific Games. The issue to overcome is the cyclone season which has the potential to devastate any garden. To mitigate this, significant investment is needed to build structures which can withstand the inevitable cyclones. So watch this space, Solomon Islanders, reasonably priced vegetables may be on the menu yet.
The first step to growing your business is the Business Health Check. You can also check the resilience of your business to respond to crises on the Business Continuity Planner. If you prefer to meet a local BLP representative in-person to discuss your business, a Diagnostic Report can be generated.
All these tools can be found on Business Link Pacific’s website – https://businesslinkpacific.com/#business-toolkit. If you would like to read more about the financial support services offered by BLP, these are also available on the website – https://about.businesslinkpacific.com/what-are-blps-finance-services-support/.