Pasifika festival a success: Bilo Sinai
More than 220 performance groups and 40,000 visitors headed to Western Springs Park in Auckland for the 25th Pasifika Festival last weekend so did Bilo Sinai, of Lami.
The Pasifika Festival is a Pacific Islands-themed festival Celebrated since 1993.
One of Fiji’s very own Kava companies, Bilo Sinai was among the four local companies selected to be part of the festival.
Director, Snehal Morris said that, the festival was a great experience for them and it provided good exposure for their product and company. “More than 40,000 people came through the festival so Bilo Sinai Kava had a great platform to showcase our ever popular Fijian Kava. It was also an opportunity for us to promote Fiji,” she said.
She added that the festival was a great success in terms of getting publicity for their product, getting more customers and even introducing non-traditional kava drinkers to 100% Fijian (Kadavu) Kava.
“It was great marketing not only for our product but also promoting Fiji’s traditional drink to a wider population in New Zealand.”
“The festival gave us a better insight of what the local NZ market will pay for Fijian Kava. And based on the feedback we have received it is obvious that the price hike in Fiji for Kava will have an impact on Fijian Kava exports to NZ, especially for companies like us that only work with 100% Fijian Kava and don’t add Vanuatu Kava etc to our product.” Ms Morris said that their overseas customers thoroughly enjoyed their product.
“It was great to hear from customers that they are enjoying a good mix of Bilo Sinai in NZ.”
The company is now looking at adding some accessories such as grog bags and ‘bilo’ to their product.