May 2019 Highlights

The beginning of May was extremely exciting for TraSeable Solutions, we took part in the “Investment Readiness and Financial Inclusion” Workshop in Nadi hosted by CTA and PIFON on the 8th of May and then only a few days later on the 11th sent out a shipment of fully traceable tuna with Sea Quest (Fiji) Limited. Both were extremely exciting experiences for TraSeable Solutions.

TraSeable Solutions was invited to participate in a CTA/IFAD/PIPSO regional one-day workshop on “Investment Readiness and Financial Inclusion” held earlier this month on the 8th of May in Nadi. The workshop was hosted by CTA and PIFON in collaboration with the Innov4AgPacific project partners IFAD and PIPSO. It brought together over 80 individuals from different farmer cooperatives, agricultural sectors, agribusiness enterprises and NGOs from all over the region.

During the  event there was a pitching competition  and TraSeable was one of the 5 SMEs that was invited to pitch their business plans to a panel of judges made up of financial institutions representatives from Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu. Our founder Kenneth Katafono pitched for the scaling up of our TraSeable Farms product to reach 1,000 users in Fiji by the end of 2020. The pitch was an utter success and we were one of the 3 winners that picked up a €17.000 award during the closing dinner and awards ceremony at the South Seas Orchids later that evening.

The pitch was a great learning experience for the TraSeable team and the €17.000 award was a bonus given the fact that we weren’t aware or expecting prize money from the pitching competition until the day right before the workshop. This additional funding support from CTA will go towards our ongoing work for TraSeable Farms.

The workshop was also an opportunity for our team to meet and network with other agribusinesses and members from various agricultural organizations from across the region.

In the early hours of Saturday 11th of May, a few members of our TraSeable team were at the Mua-I-Walu wharf in Suva providing support to Sea Quest (Fiji) Limited as they processed tagged tuna from one of their EU approved vessels for shipments to both the US and the EU. The EU shipment was a trial run for Sea Quest (Fiji) Limited and the team was all hands on deck ensuring that all the key traceability data for Sea Quest’s products were accurately captured.

Working with Sea Quest (Fiji) and being able to provide them with this type of service is not only an exciting experience for us but also for the consumer or client who has the opportunity to receive a sustainably caught and fully traceable product from Fiji.