PHAMA Plus

The company signed a new partnership with the Pacific Horticulture and Agricultural Market Access Plus Program (PHAMA Plus) to facilitate this development.

The partnership builds on PHAMA Plus' prior collaboration with Lotopoha to improve Tonga’s root crops export capacity and meet increasing quality requirements and market demands. The multipurpose facility will serve as a processing and packing facility for both frozen and fresh produce in the Eastern district of Tongatapu which supplies a large portion of the country’s total root crops exports volumes.

One of the main foci is for the farmers to be able to identify different fungal diseases that affect watermelon and how to properly treat them.

Recent training sessions were focused on signs and symptoms of Gummy stem and Blight as well as Anthracnose. In-house training is followed immediately by a field trip to enable growers to identify the various diseases that were discussed.

Signed 6 October by Australian Chief Plant Protection Officer, Gabrielle Vivian-Smith and DT Global Asia Pacific Managing Director, Frank Maiolo the MoU will strengthen the partnership between the department and DT Global through the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Program (PHAMA Plus) program.

The PHAMA Plus program is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the New Zealand Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade.