FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

The declining export competitiveness of farmers and fishers in the Pacific Islands, coupled with increased dietary dependence on imported food, has led public and private sector stakeholders in the Pacific to prioritize improving the capacity of their agricultural sectors to meet their domestic food needs.

As a result, there is an urgent need for public and private sector cooperation in order to facilitate the investment in greater productivity and value chain efficiency required to deliver more local food of high nutritional value to domestic markets, including growing tourist markets.

Value Chains for Food Security and Nutrition in the Pacific Islands

The Pacific regional initiative which commenced in 2014 aims at developing local value chains for food and nutrition security. It focuses efforts from FAO to strengthening capacities of local food producers and business to supply more food to domestic and tourist markets to meet demands for a balanced and nutritious diet and to reduce food and feed imports. This includes supporting the development of policy and regulatory frameworks which, in turn, rely on improvements in capacity to assemble, integrate, analyse and disseminate information on food, nutrition and natural resources.

In addition, capacity to participate in the development of international standards relevant to the food systems of the Pacific Islands is being enhanced and national systems to assure compliance with such standards are strengthened. Complementary efforts are made through field projects to support the creation of sustainable and inclusive value chains.

The initiative is being implemented through three action areas: firstly, building the evidence base; secondly, establishing the regional enabling environment; and thirdly, national level actions in three focus countries (Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa).