Squash Major Contribution to the Economy ^Featured

Although the planting and harvesting period only takes a short period of time, the crop rakes in millions in export earnings to help the local economy.
“Squash season is a short period of time but it brings a lot of money,” Mr Solomone Vaikeli, an Agriculture Officer from the Ministry of Agriculture Food, Forests and Fisheries said.

Mr Vaikeli said that the squash season brings in millions in only three months unlike any other crop that we export.“Our economy depends on what we do and from remittances as well as squash. The squash export is one of our major industry that contributes a lot to our economy in just a short period of time in comparison to other crops.”He told of a farmer who planted an acre of squash crop and received $9,000 for that. The squash season is normally from July to October.

Some farmers have harvested their crop and exported them overseas while some are still in the process of packaging. There are three varieties of squash that are planted by the farmers here in Tonga. These are buttercup, butternut and the butterkin varieties. Buttercup refers to the normal squash and it is the only squash that has been harvested. Mr Vaikeli said there are two major markets for Tonga which is New Zealand and Japan.

The only squash that is exported to Japan are the buttercup variety while the other two varieties of squash are allowed for export to New Zealand.
“Butternut squash on the Eastern District of Tonga has been harvested and exported to New Zealand because they have a Council for that while the other areas are still harvesting buttercup squash,” Mr Vaikeli said. “This has been a good year for squash in terms of production. What I meant by production it means what the farmers have brought out,” he said.

“This is also the impact of El Nino last year, because El Nino has cut out the life cycle of pests and diseases so it has decreased the population of pests and diseases, the result being better squash crops this year.” However, Mr Vaikeli has confirmed that the number of farmers growing squash this year has decreased. “Even though there are not that many farmers  and with the current El Nino season, it has been a year of good production,” he said.
He also made it clear that the Ministry of Agriculture work with the farmers right from the start.

‘’We are there from the beginning to guide them on how to plant, how to use fertilisers up to the day that the squash is ready to harvest and then we pull out,” he said.  “We will come in again when the squash is ready to export to examine if there are pests before they export it.” Meanwhile, Mr.Vaikeli said there are exporters here in Tonga. They are the ones that deal with the market overseas. These exporters work accordingly to the needs of the market. He also emphasized the importance of their partnership with the Department of Meteorology.

“Our partnership with Department of Meteorology has resulted in the good production of squash this year. We were advised on the El Nino last year and then we informed the farmers about this,” he added. Squash crops take 90 days to grow, with harvesting normally done around the 85th day.
The squash season is only once a year.

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Issued by: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications.