Our Background
Nature’s Way Cooperative (NWC) was established in 1995 to carry out mandatory quarantine treatment on Fijian fruit and vegetables under the Bilateral Quarantine Agreement (BQA) established with importing countries.
After over 20 years, NWC is now a thriving agribusiness providing treatment, grading, packing and technical services to both its exporter and grower members. Initially a small enterprise handling just 30 tonnes of papaya each year, NWC now treats and packs around 1000 tonnes of papaya, mango, breadfruit and eggplant annually. NWC business revolves around the treatment of BQA commodities before shipment for export using the (HTFA) technology. The exporters, who are cooperative members, buy their products for exports from farmers who are also cooperative members and bring it to NWC for treatment and packing before shipment overseas.
Most of Fiji’s horticultural export markets were lost when the chemical ethylene dibromide was banned as a quarantine treatment in 1990. Fortunately Fiji was proactive in addressing this constraint.
In a unique partnership between industry and government, Fiji embarked on an ambitious project to acquire high temperature forced air (HTFA) quarantine treatment technology developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Nature’s Way Cooperative was registered on August 15th 1995 to own and operate the new quarantine treatment facility on behalf of Fiji’s fruit growers and exporters. The technology transfer was part of a partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID). New Zealand was a part of this program – providing complementary technical assistance and critical start-up working capital. Today, as a result, Fiji has a thriving and growing industry in the export of fruit fly host commodities to New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia. NWC now has around 260 shareholding members, most of which are small farmers located in the Sigatoka Valley and in the Nadi area.
Our Members
The cooperative has over 140 members, made up of growers and exporters, who are also shareholders in the company. The vast majority of NWC shareholders are small farmers who without the services provided by NWC would not have access to export markets.
Our Key Activities
NWC provides the only quarantine treatment facility for fruit fly host products in Fiji. Currently, NWC handles four commodities: papaya, eggplant, breadfruit, and mango.
Provision of an effective field service closely supports the core business of providing quarantine treatment services. Research activities have been incorporated into several commodity projects such as the Fiji Papaya Project and the Pacific Breadfruit Project, both funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and based at the NWC complex.
NWC has commenced a program of bulk purchase of field crates and papaya seed on behalf of its members. This small scale activity has proven highly successful – providing a valuable service to members and a small profit to the business.
Representation of members to national and regional forums
NWC has become the de facto body representing the horticultural export industry in discussions with government and with donor and technical-assistance organisations.