Minister for Agriculture, Lieutenant-Colonel Inia Seruiratu (right), shakes the hand of Rara Nacovu Wood Product representative, (left) receiving the Best Forester of the Year award while Goodman Fielder general manager Fiji, Chris Zaayman (middle) looks on. Photo: WAISEA NASOKIA
By LITIA MATHEWSELL
Rara Nacovu Wood Products Limited scooped the Best Forester of the Year Award by being named the 2013 Mahogany Woodlot Harvester at the Crest Agriculture Show 2013 Awards on Friday.
Claiming one of the show’s four main awards has been a commendable fete for a company that was barely established a year ago in Nukurua, Tailevu.
The company is owned by the landowning Mataqali Rara of Naimasimasi village in Vugalei, Tailevu and was a first time participant at the annual Crest Agriculture Show in Lautoka’s Churchill Park.
Operations manager Josua Seduadua said the weeklong show was a key platform to market and exhibit their services, particularly wood carving, which proved to be a central attraction at Churchill Park.
“Although the company is young, we have managed to purchase a bulldozer, an excavator and a ten-wheeler truck through cash on hand,” Mr Seduadua said.
We have eight employees and the company has gone a long way within a short period of time, and we believe this award has set a benchmark for such a new company,’’ he said.
According to the awards judging panel, the company had been dedicated to carry out operations that lift the economic status of stakeholders in the timber industry.
The company registered and began its own harvesting contracts in April. It cleared a new site for a saw mill to convert its mahogany for marketing and also employs wood carvers.