By Loretta B Manele

North Guadalcanal’s Sape Farm is eyeing the export of its fresh yellow cassava in early 2025.

Samson Viulu, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) during an interview said the farm is expecting to export two containers of fresh yellow cassava during the first quarter of next year.

He said they have been working with the farm and the farm is ready to be operational.

Viulu stated that they are looking at exporting two containers of the yellow cassava on a monthly basis and when production increases, they will strengthen farmers by supplying them with farm implementing structure for ploughing, as well as equipment like tillers and so on.

He expressed that the aim is to help farmers because they cannot rely on manpower alone and manpower is very costly.

Viulu added that we are living in a modern world where we use technology thus should go into economies of scale and increase production so that our return on investment is high and the profit is a bit higher.

He said at the moment, we are operating at a loss because we are so used to producing small gardens for consumption and selling the left overs to the local market.

“People from Guadalcanal are the ones that produce bigger gardens for sale at the market and this is by manpower which consumes so much time and this is why the cost is high.”

Viulu said there is an importer in Melbourne, Australia who buys cassava from the pacific to sell in Australia.

He added that the importer can sell two containers of yellow cassava from Solomon Islands in a week.

“While there is yellow cassava from other countries, the fast selling one is from Solomons.”

When asked why cassava from Guadalcanal province, he said other provinces in the country also produce cassava but have a slightly bitter taste unlike the yellow cassava from Guadalcanal.