Loving Islands

27/04/2023

www.lovingislands.com/shop 🌈💕

01/02/2023

Now sold❣️ Shop beautiful hand woven organic pandanus floor mat from the Lau Islands, Fiji at www.lovingislands.com/shop 🇫🇯

Free shipping to Australia & New Zealand customers.

10/01/2023

Happy New Year 🌱 💚

The Soil Food Web School™

21/11/2022

FIJI ORGANICS: A few photos of Organic Selavo’s new glass packaging and new label for their organic dilo [tamanu / kukui] nut oil. Produced and sold directly on & from the island. Price is $50 for a 150ml bottle - a pure organic oil with incredible anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties that provide healing benefits for skin, hair and muscle health. Please contact Susana Yalikanacea directly to order! ✨

Also included a few photos of a recent arrival of kitchen goods donated to support the on-island organic manufacturing and processing capacity at Organic Selavo on Cicia Island, Lau 🇫🇯

Ps. Sorry we’ve been a little quiet on our social media lately as things are busy transitioning and restructuring. Looking forward to sharing more news in due course! ❤️

Cc. Organic Pasifika

01/10/2022

FIJI ORGANICS: Photo updates from Organic Selavo, the well-know organic enterprise in Cicia island, Lau Islands, Fiji. The nut oil milling machine that was delivered has now been assembled with a suitable generator. Experimentation has begun with copra oil production whilst the dilo/tamanu nuts continue sun drying. More news to follow soon 💚

Organic Pasifika

01/09/2022

SHOP: Another beautiful hand woven mat from Fuji’s Lau islands now sold. Thank you for your support ❤️ Shop link here for available stock: www.lovingislands.com/shop

28/08/2022

ADVOCACY: Honoured and excited to have our Founding Director Litia K Taukäve included in one of the speaker's panels at the upcoming Social Enterprise World Forum Convention in Brisbane over the 28th-29th September.

Mrs Taukäve will be sharing her Pacific experiences relating to the roles of social enterprises during Climate Emergencies.

Find out more and book tickets at the following link: https://sewfonline.com/events/sewf-2022

09/08/2022

GRANT CALL: Pacific export support for Kava, Coconut, Coffee & Turmeric industries. Submissions close 4pm 31 August 2022 (Fiji time).

CALL FOR PROPOSAL

Summary and Background
The Land Resources Division [LRD] of the Pacific Community [Pacific-Community-SPC] has launched the European Union in the Pacific -funded Safe Agricultural Trade Facilitation through Economic integration in the Pacific [SAFE Pacific] project to support and strengthen the export capacity of the 15 Pacific members of ACP. The 15 PACP members are the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

will work with new and existing enterprises including growers/processors/exporters and actors in the value chain that are interested in developing and expanding their export capacity and operation. The SAFE Pacific Project through the Land Resources Division will engage selected enterprises and partners through a competitive evaluation, and selection process. A total of 907 K Euros will be used to enhance the export capacity of successful enterprises. Selected enterprises will have the opportunity to apply for support.

Support to the successful enterprises will be based on current business turnover:

Business turnover Classification Grant
➢ 50K – 250K euros Micro up to 10K euros
➢ 250K – 500K euros Small up to 50K euros
➢ over 500K euros Medium up to 100K euros
The project will emphasize building capacity to enhance market access and pe*******on for niche and value-added products, and ensure compliance with international trade standards, e.g., SPS, HACCP, Organic and Fair Trade, and labelling standards [working alongside government agencies and beyond immediate enterprise partners]. Given its scope and support to these areas, SAFE will take a whole supply chain approach to develop enterprises' export capacity and productivity within the 15 PACPs.
SAFE will have a greater focus on developing environmentally friendly production systems [organic agriculture, agro-forestry systems, low carbon footprint, and eco certification] with a gender-youth focus and will assist exporters to adapt to the impacts of climate change in export operations using appropriate technology.

Interested applicants are to follow the link below to download the call for proposal template/document.

Applications must be submitted online to the following email address: [email protected]

Submission deadline: 4 pm 31/08/22 Fiji time.

For further information please send all enquiries to: [email protected]

All applications will be subject to a due diligence process.

For more information visit: https://www.spc.int/sites/default/files/grantfiles/2022-08/CFP%2022-4105-%20Capacity%20Building%20Support%20for%20Micro%20Small%20and%20Medium%20Enterprises%20%28MSME%26%23039%3Bs%29.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1WMqTntu2yzTD9Fn9NHHceFFMbBYHmAlqUkYKNR4Y6pjteY296trkXLxI

14/06/2022

PACIFIC ISLANDS FOREST RESTORATION INITATIVE: Women preparing voivoi/pandanus for woven floor mats in Levukaidaku village.

There are generally 2 pandanus varieties that grow on the island; one with spikes (voivoi ni Viti or ‘Fijian pandanus’) and one without spikes (voivoi ni palagi or ‘Foreign pandanus). The voivoi ni Viti is considered superior for mat making as it is said to continue softening over time, whereas the other variety is prone to splitting/cracking. However, removing the spikes involves additional work for the women, and is more challenging to harvest without gloves. This can result in women preferring to grow and weave with the voivoi ni Palagi, or introduced species variety.

This week each woman’s voivoi plantation will be surveyed to a establish baseline stocktake of the quantity, species, & age of plants to help determine the production capacity and annual income potential. A focused effort on replanting and extending the plantations will also be done as part of the reforestation and sustainable livelihoods work 💚🌺🇫🇯

08/06/2022

PACIFIC ISLANDS FOREST RESTORATION INITATIVE: Photos from Makadru village tree plantings today & seedling nursery. A bit more info on the trees being planted in the photos 🌳🇫🇯

Many thanks to the Ministry of Forestry, Fiji nursery in Colo-I-Suva, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Matuku Island communities.