An agreement under New Zealand aid, amounting to $1,411,000, was allocated to the Uluisaivou cattle project in Ra in the 1970s.
The signing took place in Suva between the Minister for Agriculture, Ratu Josua Toganivalu, and the New Zealand High Commissioner to Fiji, Graham Ansell. This event was reported in The Fiji Times on Wednesday, July 7, 1976.
The aid package included approximately $343,000 for materials and equipment, $47,000 for crop development, pasture research, and communications, as well as the importation of 1,800 cattle from New Zealand and Australia. It also covered the assignment of a general manager and a ranch manager.
Uluisaivou was at the heart of a 100,000-acre beef ranch scheme established by a corporation of Fijian landowners.
In expressing the Fiji Government’s gratitude for New Zealand’s support, Ratu Josua told Mr. Ansell that the project was significant for any government to undertake.
John Stone, the New Zealander appointed as the scheme’s general manager, attended the agreement signing and reported that fencing and general building works were “well underway.”
Prior to the signing, equipment and 300 cattle had already arrived from New Zealand and Australia.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Uluisaivou Corporation would repay most of the New Zealand aid funds to the Development Bank, which would then use the money for further agricultural lending.