SUVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A Ministry of Health (MOH) survey by the Samoan government showed that there were more imported fruits and vegetables sold in local shops in Samoa.
This meant that foreign-produce had overtaken local produce as the government explores the availability of lower cost nutritionally superior diet to improve food security and health in the Pacific region.
The survey in January-February this year checked on the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, to ascertain whether a large number of the Samoan population had access to a variety of local fruits and vegetables in their diets.
Reports on Samoa Observer news website on Monday stated that most Samoans were without transport to be able to go to a local shop and supermarket and this was of particular concern to the ministry's survey.
The survey monitored a total of 140 shops and supermarkets biannually, in order to determine whether people have sufficient access to local fruits and vegetables when they go shopping.
According to the findings of the survey, 93 percent of the shops that were monitored for selling fruits and vegetables had them available.
However, only 57 percent of the shops monitored sold local fruits and vegetables while 89 percent of those monitored sold overseas fruits and vegetables. Enditem
