FBC News 
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Commercial agriculture has vast potential to grow and help the Fijian economy.
As the nation waits for the National Budget on Friday, a report titled, Fiji Budget Repair was published by the ANZ Bank.
It says that allocating land for commercial agriculture is an area to be looked at as commercial agriculture has growth potential but requires long-term land leases.
The report goes on to add that greater yield volumes make agricultural projects more profitable.
It says that Fiji’s high-quality products, including bottled water, mahogany and sugar, are sought after, and there is growing demand for exports such as ginger, turmeric and kava.
Also mentioned is that allocating under-utilized land for agricultural use could facilitate the upscaling of commercial agriculture.
There is also a call to open up the green electricity sector and to date, new renewable energy projects have largely been funded by multilateral and development partners, either as grants or concessional loans.
However, the report says the funding pool is not enough to support the investments needed.
ANZ says private investors have identified impediments such as high costs, scale, inconsistency in the procurement framework, credit risks and unbalanced funding structures.
The national budget will be delivered at 10 am and you can watch it on FBC TV and it will simulcast on Radio Fiji 1 and 2 and as well as Gold FM.
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