Coconut Industry serves as a significant importance to the Fijian economy due to its contribution to economic and social wellbeing of most rural based population. It has proven over the years to be an important source of livelihood for most rural and maritime people, even though the performance of the industry has been on the decline since 1970s. Its resilience has encouraged Government to continue to rehabilitate and develop this industry which supports an estimated 280,000 farmers who are dependent on it for livelihood. Coconut covers an area of about 64,188 ha of arable land. Coconuts are a critical part of the Fijian way of life with almost 1 in 32 people dependent on coconuts.
The performance of the industry has been largely affected by natural disasters, coconut timber harvesting from senile palms, the shift to more lucrative shorter-term crops like Kava and taro, low yields, high transportation costs with unfavourable market prices. These coupled with the lack of labour and high labour costs have caused many farmers to lose interest in the once lucrative industry.
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