Five Years in the Making: Samoan Products Reach Z Shelves as Lavea Backs Samoa’s Export Dream

What began as a vision five years ago has reached a significant milestone in New Zealand, with Samoan products now appearing on the shelves of Z service stations operated by Samoan businessman Rev. Lavea Tuilimu Toleafoa Larry Tupaʻi — and he is calling on the community to support the initiative so Samoa itself can benefit.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — Fill up the car, grab a coffee — and perhaps take home a piece of Samoa.

For the first time, Samoan products are being introduced into Z service stations operated by Rev. Lavea Tuilimu Toleafoa Larry Tupaʻi's Aiga Energy business across West Auckland, marking an important milestone in a journey Lavea says has taken around five years to bring to fruition.

It may look like a few products sitting on a shelf or inside a freezer.

But behind them is a much bigger story.

It is a story about Samoa's farmers, its land, its products, the difficulties of exporting from a small Pacific nation, and a Samoan businessman in New Zealand prepared to provide a market for what Samoa produces.

For Lavea, the concept is straightforward.

If this succeeds, Samoa gains.

And success ultimately depends on people buying the products.

From Samoa to the shelves of Z

Through his Samoan-owned Aiga Energy business, Lavea operates a network of Z service stations across West Auckland.

He is now using that retail footprint to provide space for Samoan products alongside a broader range of Pacific produce.

It is a significant step because these products are moving beyond the traditional Pacific supermarket environment and into stores operating under one of New Zealand's most recognisable fuel and convenience brands.

Customers walking into participating Z stores for fuel, coffee, drinks or everyday convenience items can now also encounter products connected to Samoa.

For Pacific families in West Auckland, there is another practical benefit.

They no longer necessarily need to drive across Auckland to South Auckland to find some of the familiar Pacific products they are looking for.

Lavea's Aiga Energy operations stretch across several West Auckland communities, giving the initiative the potential to reach customers much closer to where they live.

And there are plans to take it further if the concept proves successful.

Five years in the making

For Lavea, this did not happen overnight.

He traces the journey back around five years, including the period when Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt, now Prime Minister, was Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Lavea recalls the push at the time to get Samoa's agricultural produce moving into overseas markets.

It was a vision he believed in then, and continues to believe in today.

New Zealand seemed like a natural market.

Thousands of Samoan and Pacific families already knew the products. There was demand, and there were businesses prepared to sell them.

But Lavea discovered that opening a market was one thing.

Keeping it supplied was another.

He once had five Tasi Markets

Lavea knows the consequences of inconsistent supply first-hand.

At one point, he operated five Tasi Market stores.

Today, only one remains, situated at Māngere Town Centre.

Among the challenges Lavea identifies in maintaining the stores was the shortage and inconsistency of supply.

It is a problem that goes directly to the heart of Samoa's export ambitions.

A retailer cannot sell what does not arrive.

And when a customer repeatedly comes looking for Samoan taro, breadfruit or another product only to find the shelves empty, eventually that customer finds an alternative.

That experience could have convinced Lavea to give up.

Instead, he decided to become more involved.

Going back to Samoa to find a solution

Lavea regularly travels between New Zealand and Samoa as he works to improve the supply chain himself.

Rather than simply waiting in Auckland for another shipment, he has established relationships with Samoa's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS).

Lavea has met with SROS Chief Executive Officer Fiso Pousui Dr Fiame Leo and staff as he works to improve the continuity of Samoa taro, breadfruit and other products destined for New Zealand.

Shipping remains a challenge.

Supply remains a challenge.

Maintaining the quantities required by an overseas retail market remains a challenge.

But Lavea continues to pursue it because he believes the opportunity for Samoa is much bigger than one shipment.

“We are rich with our ocean and our land”

At the centre of Lavea's vision is his belief that Samoa already possesses much of what it needs to create economic opportunity.

“We are rich with our ocean and our land,” Lavea says.

For generations, Samoa's land and ocean have sustained its people.

Lavea believes those same resources can generate greater income for families if Samoa can increase production, add value to what it grows and successfully reach overseas markets.

And there is history behind that confidence.

There was a time when Samoan taro was king in the Pacific.

Lavea strongly believes it can happen again.

But becoming a major agricultural exporter again will require more than farmers simply planting more taro.

The entire chain has to work.

Farmers must produce.

Products must meet export standards.

Processing and packaging must be available.

Shipping must be reliable.

And at the other end, somebody has to be prepared to buy it.

Government working on the Samoa end

That is where Lavea's initiative also connects with work being undertaken by the Samoa Government.

Through MAF, SROS and other agencies, Samoa has been working to strengthen agricultural production, develop value-added products and improve pathways into export markets.

The Government has been looking at ways of addressing one of the recurring problems facing farmers — producing crops without having enough reliable markets to absorb them.

Recent work has included efforts involving MAF, SROS and Samoa's export authorities to prepare taro for freezing and overseas markets, alongside infrastructure to hold frozen agricultural produce awaiting export.

MAF's broader agricultural work also supports increasing production and developing opportunities for crops such as taro and breadfruit to become frozen products, flour, snacks and other higher-value goods.

SROS provides another important piece of the puzzle through agricultural research, food technology and the development of value-added products.

Together, these efforts are aimed at taking more of what Samoa grows and turning it into products capable of earning export income.

But Government cannot do it alone.

Eventually there must be a buyer overseas.

Lavea is trying to become that buyer

That is what makes Lavea's role different.

He is not simply telling Samoa to export more.

He is purchasing products and trying to provide somewhere for them to be sold.

Through his businesses in New Zealand, he has access to retail shelves and consumers.

That potentially creates the other end of the export chain the Government, MAF, SROS, farmers and producers in Samoa are trying to build.

Samoa grows it.

Samoa develops and prepares it.

Lavea buys it.

His businesses put it on the shelf.

And consumers decide whether the cycle continues.

Beyond taro

Lavea's vision also goes beyond selling raw agricultural produce.

He has been pushing Samoa's value-added products, including Samoa Taro Whiskey, believing Samoa should capture more value from what it grows.

The principle is important.

A taro has one value when it leaves the plantation as a raw crop.

But when agricultural produce is processed into flour, chips, frozen products, beverages or other commercially developed goods, there is an opportunity to create additional value.

The same potential exists with Samoa's breadfruit, cocoa, coconut and other resources.

Lavea is also supporting the purchase and promotion of Samoan handicrafts, creating another potential avenue for local artisans and families to earn from overseas markets.

If we buy, Samoa has a reason to produce more

Lavea stresses that if this initiative succeeds, Samoa stands to gain.

And the equation is not complicated.

If customers buy the Samoan products from his stores, the stores need to order more.

More orders create greater demand in Samoa.

Greater demand provides an incentive for farmers to plant more and producers to manufacture more.

More production can mean more employment, more income circulating through villages and families, and more export revenue entering Samoa.

But if the products sit untouched on the shelves, there is little reason for the next order to be bigger.

That is why community support matters.

This is an opportunity for Samoans living overseas to support Samoa in perhaps the most practical way possible — by becoming customers of what Samoa produces.

Support it and help it grow

For decades, Samoans overseas have sent money home.

We support our families.

We contribute to our villages.

We give to our churches.

We donate when Samoa needs help.

But there is another powerful way of supporting home.

Buy what Samoa produces.

When you purchase Samoan taro, koko, breadfruit, handicrafts or another locally produced product, you are helping demonstrate that an overseas market exists.

And when a Samoan businessman is prepared to use his own retail network to create space for those products, supporting the initiative sends an important commercial message:

Bring us more.

That message can travel from a Z store in West Auckland all the way back to a farmer's plantation in Samoa.

From five years of struggle to an opportunity

Five years ago, this was a vision.

Along the way there have been supply shortages, shipping difficulties and business setbacks.

Lavea once operated five Tasi Markets.

Today there is one.

Yet rather than walking away from Samoa's products, he has gone back to Samoa, built relationships with MAF and SROS and continued trying to make the supply chain work.

Now those products are reaching a new platform through the Z service stations operated by Aiga Energy.

The opportunity is there.

The shelves are there.

The customers are there.

The Government, MAF and SROS are working on strengthening Samoa's side of the equation.

And Lavea is attempting to strengthen the New Zealand end.

Now comes perhaps the most important part:

Will we support it?

Because every time someone chooses a product from Samoa, they are casting a small vote of confidence in Samoa's farmers, producers and ability to compete overseas.

Lavea believes Samoa's land and ocean remain among its greatest assets.

He remembers when Samoan taro was king in the Pacific.

And he believes it can be again.

If we want Samoa to export more, someone overseas must be willing to buy.

Lavea has opened the door. Supporting the products on the shelves can help keep that door open.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•