Imagine having the courage to start a business in the most remote of locations, and then exporting to the world from the furthest end of international supply chains – or managing this outgoing business all online. These are the just some of the challenges faced by women-led businesses in the Blue Pacific Continent. And all this on top of the usual obligations to children, the wider family and community.
Still, women-led businesses in the Blue Pacific have much to celebrate – mostly in response to their resilience in rising to and superseding these challenges outlined above, beyond those provided by added pressures of post-COVID business recovery.
At PTI NZ we are working with women entrepreneurs in the Blue Pacific. We support them by introducing them to import protocols for their products in the New Zealand and other regional markets; with market intelligence for these areas; assessing commodity/products/services demand in New Zealand; and help with packaging considerations – including sourcing materials and packaging design and labelling requirements.
This interface was highlighted with the showcasing of fine products from the Blue Pacific at the Fine Foods Show in New Zealand earlier this year.
To take just some examples:
- the visual impact of the fine packaging of herbal teas from Fiji-based Aztec Farms,
- the great products from the Cacao Ambassador sourced from the Solomon Island and Papua New Guinea indicates the success of this collaborative approach – which is also an integral part of the DNA of all women-led businesses the world over.
It been well-documented and proved investing in women is a predictor of long-term value growth and community success. Society at large benefits – and so do governments. So this makes a focus on facilitating the establishment of women-led businesses a smart move for any development-minded organisation.
One practical and effective route towards this is helping women-led businesses find investment capital – which PTI NZ helps with too.
Post-COVID reflections
Within the series of Pacific Business Monitor – COVID Reflections reports put out by the PTI Network in September, was one looking at the recovery and future prospects of Female-Led Businesses throughout the Blue Pacific Continent.
These Pacific Business Monitor COVID Reflections reports were compiled in collaboration with the independent research agency Fifth Quadrant. The female-led focus report looks closely at the many and varied experiences and challenges that female-led businesses in the Pacific region had to deal with in the COVID years between 2020 and 2022.
One of the most significant repercussions of the pandemic was at front and centre of the report: an average of 86 per cent of female-led businesses in the Pacific region reported a decrease in revenue due to COVID-19, across the survey periods.
Indicative of their inherent resilience, by the first half of 2022 this had dropped to 72 per cent – so that was one positive to be reported. But this must be compared to a Pacific average across all businesses of 67 per cent at the same period. These figures suggests that a greater number of female-led businesses experienced revenue loss compared to their male-led counterparts for the duration of the pandemic.
This disparity was further evident as female-led businesses faced significantly higher challenges in gaining access to capital, the cost of materials, and labour issues than the Pacific average.
Amidst these challenges, a silver lining emerged: female-led respondents reported an appetite to implement transformative initiatives to support their businesses. A slightly higher proportion of female-led businesses called for access to new markets, diversifying their business, and accessing better skills and knowledge across 2021 and 2022 than the Pacific average.
The report brings to the fore the pressing need for a comprehensive support structure for female entrepreneurs in the Pacific. This encompasses a spectrum of resourcing, from access to finance and training, to diversity of market. Additionally, a clarion call emanates from the report, emphasising the urgency of reinforcing the tenets of gender equality and women's economic empowerment in the Pacific – both pivotal for rejuvenating and sustaining growth in the private sector.
The Pacific Business Monitor COVID Reflections Female-led Report is part of a broader series that dissects the repercussions of COVID-19 on diverse sectors within the Pacific, laying the groundwork for governments, donors, and stakeholders to comprehend the unique adversities and opportunities that presented themselves to industries during the pandemic-induced economic downturn.
As the World Health Organisation declared that COVID-19 no longer represents a global health emergency on 5 May 2023, this series of PTI Pacific Business Monitor COVID Reflection reports offer retrospective data on Pacific industries, their challenges, needs, and opportunities.
For more detailed insights from the PTI Pacific Business Monitor COVID Reflection reports, please visit the PTI Network website.
The future
It’s through these efforts we have observed and experienced some good results for the women-led businesses of the Blue Pacific who we work with. This speaks to our commitment to enhancing the successes of these businesses – but there is still much work to do. For beyond the expected hurdles of equity, there remain the challenges of pursuing export business from the far reaches of the Blue Pacific Continent. We’re here to help!
