Pasifika Business Market adds new vibe at Pasifika Festival
There’s a new vibe happening at Pasifika Festival and it’s all about business.
Pacific Trade Invest New Zealand is hosting its first stand-alone pan-Pasifika Business Market place. Adding a new hub
with more than 35 small to medium businesses directly from 11 Pacific Island countries to the Pasifika Festival’s
Village layout.
The new Pasifika Business Market is beside the Samoa Village in front of Western Springs Stadium. It’s been a 3-year
progression for PTI NZ sparking new life into the Pasifika Festival, one of New Zealand’s largest cultural festivals.
It reflects the same journey made by many Pacific peoples seeking opportunities in a new land the businesses expanding
their horizons beyond the reef exporting authentic ‘Made in the Pacific’ products to a new land: Aotearoa, New Zealand.
But it’s all part of PTI NZ’s Path to Market programme helping Pacific Island businesses understand more about exporting
into the New Zealand market.
This is the third year the PTI NZ Path to Market programme has worked with in-country partners such as Chambers of
Commerce and Trade and Investment Promotion agencies to identify potentially export ready companies to come to Pasifika.
It’s also the first time PTI NZ has its own hub after working closely with Auckland City’s ATEED to form the first
stand-alone Pasifika Business Market.
The island companies’ products are proudly ‘Made in the Pacific’. All unique, locally handmade in their home countries.
Authentic. No “Made Elsewhere’ labels.
Attending the Pasifika Business Market is not just to test their products, appeal, labelling and packaging. They also
pin their country locations on the map for many Kiwis and tourists unfamiliar with the wider Pacific.
Coming from far away from the islands of the Northern Pacific, are a small business from Palau making traditional glass
beads, from Kosrae comes Green Banana Paper. And the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Marshall Islands bring
distinctive handicrafts to Pasifika.
Melanesia is represented by Papua New Guinea with its unique Bilum bags and clothing, artisan wooden carvings and
coffee; Solomon Islands and Vanuatu with kava, coffee and handicrafts. And from closer to home -- Fiji, Samoa, Tonga,
the Cook Islands and for the first time from French Polynesia, a variety of hand-crafted merchandise, street/beach wear
and food and beverages.
It’s PTI NZ’s first Pasifka Business Market and with hope, the beginning of a new export journey for the Pacific.