Axeing of F.D.L. ‘large loss for Tonga exports’

Press, 30 January 1986, Page 12

Axeing of F.D.L. ‘large loss for Tonga exports’

From PESI FONUA in Nukualofa

The current dismantling of the New Zealand fruit importers, Fruit Distributors, Ltd, and free trade between New Zealand and Australia, taking effect by 1995, will have a farreaching effect on Tongan trade with its main trading partner, New Zealand. The axelng of the F.D.L., a company which has monopolised the importing of Pacific island bananas to New Zealand, cannot be compensated with the benefits of the five-year-old trading agreement, SPARTECA, some Tongan officials argue.

They say it is going to mean a substantial loss in Tongan exports to New Zealand for Tongan growers who, after years of enjoying a stable and guaranteed payment from F.D.L., will have to battle it out on their own on the open market. Tonga’s director of agriculture, Mr Tomasi Simiki, feels that under the New Zealand Labour Government’s new open market arrangement, Tongan growers will be leftvulnerable to exploitation because of their weak background in several areas of the industry. “Our growers lack the ability and the quality of the produce to deal directly with the buyers. The last shipment of waterntlon was a good example,” Mr Simiki said.

The F.D.L. is a statutory body, established by the New Zealand Government during the 1940 s to handle the importation of agricultural produce, especially bananas from the Pacific islands, and through which the New Zealand Government subsidised the payment for island bananas.

Bananas are the only Tongan agricultural produce to receive this subsidy. Watermelon, vegetables and root crops are sold on an open market arrangement.

Mr Simiki said that when New Zealand announced the dismantling of F.D.L. in November last year, the Ministry was in the midst of trying to include these products under F.D.L. subsidy. The destruction of 6000 watermelons in Auckland in December was, he said, like a preliminary warning of what could happen when Tonga deals in an open market, having a “devastating effect on all concerned.” “For us to survive, we have to work really hard and move in fast to cope with the changing nature of the trading pattern,” Mr Simiki said.

Pointing to fundamental changes Tonga might have to make, he said the Tongan method of farming must change. He foresaw a move from subsistence farming, practised by a high &■- centage of growers with

small land holdings, to commercial farming. This would mean major changes to the present Land Act whereby each Tongan male is eligible to 3.34 hectares, a system which is no longer feasible because of an increase in population. All land belongs to the Crown and cannot be sold, so, under such restrictions, investment in commercial farming which would require large land holdings is discouraged. After a cyclone in 1982, part of the New Zealand assistance to rehabilitate the Tongan economy was to revitalise the banana industry. It provided about $5 million.

Production has steadily increased. The trade imbalance between the two countries still presents a widing gap.

Free trade between New Zealand and Australia would mean Tongan growers compete with Australian i commercial farmers for a share of the New Zealand market. Mr Simiki pointed out that Australian commercial farming is no longer a labour intensive industry but has become mechanised.

“We have to realise our present trading position, and it is a natural reaction that major changes take place only when the environment is hostile,” he said.