A local executive chef has called on the agricultural industry to increase the supply of produce in order to allow for more use in the tourism industry.
Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji executive chef, Sailesh Naidu, said while Fiji was rich with variety of foods, the supply was low.
He made these comments during the Pacific Cuisine Dinner event held at the Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi.
Increase Supply
Chef Naidu said: “Yes I agree that there is food supply in Fiji but how many can they (farmers) produce? This is the only thing left with Fiji and it is the supply in quantity.
“Hopefully with this exposure of local products, farmers will be encouraged to plant more. That way everything stays within Fiji, good economy and no more imports,” he said.
The event was hosted by the South Pacific Tourism Orgainsation in partnership with the European Union and University of the South Pacific as part of the Pacific Culinary Workshop.
More than fifty people came down to Tanoa International Hotel to taste locally produced food and cuisine from three renowned chefs.
The other two were Castaway Island Executive Chef, Lance Seeto and Pacific Islands Resorts consultant, Colin Chung.
Chef Naidu said: “The whole idea of the dinner is not only to expose our local products but to also show what we can do with it.
“There are so many things we can do from one particular produce and it depends on how we do it. We just have to be creative,” Mr Naidu said.
“Many times we don’t get tourist coming to us and commenting on our food, but now we do and it is very important to us to get their feedback.”