Timely assistance
THE Business Link Pacific’s (BLP) adaptation grants have given a lot of local businesses a second chance to breathe some extra life in their operations after being affected by the pandemic.
Businesswoman Eileen Chute is another entrepreneur who found the grant to be very timely and useful for her business that she has been running for the past 11 years.
Ms Chute is the Café executive officer of Bulaccino Organic Farm who said she was affected by the global pandemic and faced significant damage to her nursery early in the year during a cyclone.
She told BLP that they were not able to advance their vision and immediate goals for the farm as the nursery had been blown away by the recent cyclone and they wanted to rebuild a stronger nursery that could help boost their farm production.
She had no means of getting it constructed as she was facing financial constraints because of the loss of sales caused by COVID-19.
“The BLP Grant immediately allowed us to construct a solid nursery to raise organic seedlings in a proper manner which will help boost our farm production.
“The farm is currently supplying our café about 80 per cent of its produce which we intend to increase to 90 per cent through the new nursery,” said Ms Chute.
She said the organic farm had supported her vision of providing fresh, organic and locally grown produce on their menu items.
“I am carrying my tradition and experience of growing up in the remote areas of Udu Point in Vanua Levu where we only consumed locally farmed produce,” said Ms Chute.
She said they could also sell organic seedlings for additional income which would allow them to move towards starting their own organic market in Fiji, adding that the market would cater for other organic farmers in their PGS Group, providing them a space to sell their produce.
Bulaccino Organic Farm is located in Nadi consisting of 23 fields out of which 17 are for agricultural production such as root crops, fruits, vegetables and herbs.
The remaining three fields are for animal production such as sheep, chickens and ducks.
The farm caters only for the menu items on its café menu, allowing locally produced products and any excess of the fresh harvest is sold through the café in their pantry section.
Meanwhile Ms Chute encourages other SMEs to opportunities to allow their businesses to diversify and earn multiple income streams within their organisations.
Business Link Pacific offers a wide range of services to businesses in Fiji, such as the business diagnostic; a comprehensive business assessment to help business owners identify issues and opportunities and to connect to the business advisors based in Fiji.