A Nasasa woman’s first visit to a Northern Division business expo on July 3, 2026 came home with fresh farming and business ideas, including direct tips from the Ministry of Agriculture. Lavinia Vinau, 40, attended the Business Assistance Fiji (BAF) and Business Link Pacific (BLP) Northern MSME Networking Expo in Labasa on behalf of her husband, Sairusi Bana. A friend had urged her to go, and Vinau said she found the day informative and interactive. The expo is a key piece of a wider push to deliver business support services to Fiji’s Northern Division.
For Vinau, the visit opened up a network of stakeholders she had not previously met. She said agricultural officers and business advisors shared farming practices and ideas that could help small enterprises grow. The Bana family has been in kava for two decades, and the couple has sold at the Labasa Market for the past seven years. Vinau said weather patterns remain one of the biggest challenges affecting her kava production. The takeaway she offered was simple: expos like this help small businesses find room to grow.
Vinau’s First Labasa Expo and the Practical Advice She Took Home
“This is my first time attending this expo and coming across many new things in the North,” Ms Vinau said. Ms Vinau attended the BAF/BLP MSME Networking Expo at the Labasa Civic Centre Hall on July 3. At that venue, Fijian entrepreneurs, government agencies, and business advisory services converged for the day.
Vinau said the wide range of stakeholders was the standout feature of her day. “There were many stakeholders, including the Ministry of Agriculture, providing farming tips and sharing new ideas that could help small businesses,” she said. Stalls from the Ministry of Agriculture offered production advice Vinau had not previously encountered in her kava operation. At each booth, she ran questions that ranged from land preparation to market timing. Digital tools and online marketplaces were also on display, pitching ways for small growers to reach buyers beyond the local market.
The visit also gave Vinau a contact list she had not previously had. A friend had told her about the event, and once inside, she met Fijian business advisors who laid out the steps for grant eligibility. By the end of the day, Vinau said she was carrying two handouts and a phone full of new contacts. The expo doubled as a practical first stop for a grower who had no prior access to such networks.
A 20-Year Kava Trade Tested by Changing Weather
The kava trade is the family’s livelihood, and Mr Bana has been at it for the past 20 years. Vinau has long supported the family enterprise, and the couple now grows kava and sells it at the Labasa Market. They started selling from home before securing a market stall seven years ago. The shift from a home-based trade to a permanent stall at the market marked the family’s expansion into formal retail. The stall gave them a steadier point of sale, with pricing set by the day’s kava weight and quality grades.
Vinau walked the expo with that background in mind. Her practical focus was how to grow better kava and how to sell it more reliably. The day delivered on both counts in her telling.
At the expo, Vinau paid particular attention to stalls offering advice on managing crop loss. She said changing weather patterns remained one of the biggest challenges affecting kava production for her family’s operation. Talks at the event covered irrigation, soil management, and post-harvest handling that growers like Vinau could put to use right away. She did not get every answer she needed, but she left with a clearer picture of where to look next. Vinau laid out the trade-off plainly: better farming practices mean little unless weather extremes stay within reason.
“We do kava farming and then bring it to the market,” Ms Vinau said. The model is straightforward, but exposure to weather extremes adds a high-stakes variable to every season.
This business is good, and expos like this help small businesses to grow.
Ms Vinau, a 40-year-old Nasasa kava grower and first-time expo attendee, offered the line at the Northern MSME Networking Expo held in the Labasa Civic Centre Hall on July 3, 2026. Her kava operation with husband Sairusi Bana stretches back 20 years. The couple has sold at the Labasa Market for the past seven years. The day’s value, she said, was hands-on advice she had not previously been able to access close to home.
Why the Expo Was Set Up in Labasa
MSME abbreviates to micro, small and medium enterprises, the term New Zealand High Commissioner Greg Andrews used as he set out why this category matters to Pacific economies.
- About 90 per cent of businesses worldwide are MSMEs (per Greg Andrews, Labasa Expo).
- Around 50 per cent of global GDP comes from MSMEs (per Greg Andrews, Labasa Expo).
- Five growth sectors define the Vanua Levu MSME map (per Sachida Nand).
Andrews said the expo exists in part because MSME support is no longer optional for a Pacific economy. His message to attendees centred on the importance of building new relationships in person.
“Today we have a great opportunity and a great chance to build new relationships,” Mr Andrews said. The expo brought together, under one roof, an unusually dense set of business advisory services, financial institutions, and government agencies. He praised the practical format: stalls, side conversations, and on-site sign-ups. The Labasa Civic Centre Hall, he said, was the right venue for that format.
Assistant Minister for Commerce and Business Development Sachida Nand said the Labasa stop reflects how entrepreneurship in the Northern Division has matured. “MSMEs are building a more inclusive and resilient Fiji,” Mr Nand said. He framed the expo as a deliberate move to put business support on the same island as the entrepreneurs it serves.
Vanua Levu’s MSME Map Has Five Sectors and a Distance Problem
Nand placed the expo in the wider Northern economic map. He said Vanua Levu continues to offer strong opportunities across five sectors that the regional economy still leans on. The list below names the five areas he identified.
- Agriculture
- Fisheries
- Tourism
- Manufacturing
- Renewable energy
The five-sector count frames what the region already has and where new MSME support should reach. Farmers in Seaqaqa, tourism operators in Savusavu, and digital entrepreneurs building online services each face their own distance problems, even within Vanua Levu. Nand said the expo’s Northern tour was meant to shorten those distances for entrepreneurs who would otherwise travel to Viti Levu to access support. “Our Northern Division continues to prove that distance is not a barrier to business growth,” he said. Nand’s case: the policy and advisory networks on Viti Levu are useful to Vanua Levu businesses only if they reach there. The expo is one piece of that bridge.
Distance from Viti Levu is the recurring complaint of Northern entrepreneurs. Many would otherwise miss industry events, advisory sessions, and grant appointments that run only in Suva. The Labasa expo compressed that gap into one accessible Friday afternoon for first-time visitors like Vinau.
Nand closed his remarks with a sharp framing of what the expo had removed.
By bringing this expo to the North, we have removed a significant geographic barrier and ensured that Northern entrepreneurs can access Government agencies, business advisory services and financial institutions right here at home.
Mr Nand, Assistant Minister for Commerce and Business Development, offered the line at the Northern MSME Networking Expo at the Labasa Civic Centre on July 3, 2026. Entrepreneurs on Vanua Levu, he said, should not have to leave Vanua Levu to access the support they need. The expo made that case practical, on one July Friday in Labasa.
The Wider Pacific MSME Push Behind the Labasa Expo
BAF (Fiji) and BLP (Pacific region) jointly ran the Northern MSME Networking Expo at the Labasa Civic Centre Hall. The partnership puts Fiji’s in-country organiser together with MSME advisory services across the Pacific. Joint events under that banner bring small businesses into contact with grant programmes, business advisory services, and government agencies. The Northern MSME Networking Expo is one of Fiji MSME workshops and expos the pair are staging through 2026. Vinau walked into the Labasa Civic Centre Hall on July 3 to find all of those actors in one place.
On the day, BLP and BAF brought advisory services, financial institutions, and government agencies under one hall. Growers who might otherwise chase grant and advisory meetings in Suva could sit down with the relevant actors in their home region. For Vinau, that access was the day’s main takeaway, alongside handouts and the contact list her phone now holds.
For the Bana family, the day’s specific advice was what they brought home. Their kava operation, now seven years at the Labasa Market, sits at the intersection of three regional pressures: weather, distance, and the daily kava price at the local market. The expo was her first exposure to grant eligibility details, Ministry of Agriculture advice, and a working network of business advisors she could call. The weather and price pressures that opened the day were still in place when she left the Labasa Civic Centre Hall.
