EMI KOROITANOA
From humble beginnings, come great things.
This rings true for the Northland Farmers’ Co-operative Ltd which has successfully amassed a great fortune since their inception more than a decade ago in Fiji.
Northland Farmers’ Co-operative Ltd supplies goods to dairy farmers and operates a store in Tailevu.
Chairperson of the co-operative Hirday Lakhan said when the cooperative first started in 2006, its pioneer members started off with a mere $350 in the cooperative’s bank account.
However, it has achieved more than a million dollars’ worth of gross sale in the last financial year.
“The real success about it is not that we made a sale but we asked the question -where did that money come from, it came from our poor members,” Mr. Lakhan said.
“The source of that money was North-land, it has made profit in Northland and it will be useful in Northland.”
He explained that a mere $350 might have been a very small amount compared to today’s standard.
“But we in the cooperative were saying that’s a huge seed money for us, it was a big seed,” Mr. Lakhan said.
“And today, they might have more than hundred times that amount in the bank. So that money, that seed has really grown.”
Furthermore, the co-operative like many other businesses endure hurdles and challenges.
“Challenges will always be there, one of the challenges is we are new and some of the areas where we have challenges in is competition,” he said.
“The competitions are coming from organisations that are much older, much bigger than us. How do you compete with RC Manubhai, or Vinod Patel? Those are big competitors,” he shared.
However, he said though the co-operative faces such hurdles, its biggest strength stems from its desire to help its members.