Fijians are now tapping into their talents and producing goods and artifacts to earn extra income during this slow period.

Many of these talented Fijians took advantage of the monthly Gold FM ROC Market in Suva to sell their products today.

Kitione Pickering a former sales consultant who lost his job due to COVID-19 and now owns a business called “Pipe Dreams” in Nadi says his journey to Suva was not a waste.

“We started doing this ladder planters and suspended planters, the reason why we started doing this is that well we both out of work now, we figured that this would be a really good spot to ramp up our business.”

Pickering says he didn’t expect that things would turn out well for his business.

A 12-year-old girl from Sigatoka, Lily Hill also displayed her hand made necklaces. She says she has been busy during this school break.

“My dad has this idea where I could go collect shells on the beach and do cool stuff with them, so I have a dog call TikTok and I take her on walks every day and I pick up shells and I bring them home, and I made jewelry with them. My mum since a glassblower she has all this cool equipment and she’s got this grinder which I use to do the shapes of the necklaces which like this one.” 

Another vendor Georgia Gremore who is a first-timer at the Roc Market, says she makes her items out of trash collected at the beach such as plastic bottles.

Hundreds of Fijians took advantage of the Roc Market today, as they not only bought hand-made items, but there was something for the plant lovers as well.