Amazon.com description: Product Description: On 15 August, Qarase said that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had granted assistance to Fiji to develop its biofuels project. Transformation of the Fiji Sugar Corporation into an energy and sugar company would result in a turnover of F$1 billion by 2025, he said, and would cut imports of crude oil, generate export earnings, and provide a source of electricity. Energy could be produced from copra, forest, and agricultural products, as well as sugar. He touted the scheme as necessary for diversifying and strengthening the sugar industry for its own survival and the nation's economic good. He said that the government of India had loaned F$86 million for the upgrading of Fiji's sugar mills, which would be completed in time for the 2007-2008 crushing season.

On 28 December 2005, John Teiwa of the Coconut Industry Development Authority annouced that a 20-year plan for the coconut industry would be launched in 2006. Finance from international investors, including the government of India, would be sought to develop the processing of virgin and extra virgin coconut oil, with a view to venturing into foreign health markets. The government expected an annual profit of F$120 million from the venture. Fiji Village reported. Trials for the generation of fuel from coconut oil were also in progress. Teiwa said.

Fiji runs a persistently large trade deficit, Imports in 1998 accounted for US$721 million, and exports for US$510 million, resulting in a US$116 million deficit. Tourism revenue yields a services surplus, however, which keeps the current account of its balance of payments roughly in balance ($13 million in 1998). Australia accounts for between 35% and 45% of Fiji's trade, with New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan varying year-by-year between 5% and 15% each.

Foodstuffs, machinery, mineral fuels, beverages, tobacco, and manufactured goods are the principal imports. The two largest exports are sugar and garments, which each accounted for approximately one-quarter of export revenue in 1998 (roughly $122 million each). The sugar industry suffered in 1997 due to low world prices and rent disputes between farmers and landowners, and again in 1998 from drought, but recovered in 1999. The Fijian garment industry has developed rapidly since the introduction of tax exemptions in 1988. The industry's output has increased nearly tenfold since that time. Fish, lumber, malasses, coconut oil and ginger are also improtant exports, although the last two are in decline. Forestry became important as an export trade in the mid-1980s. When the pine plantations planted in the 1950s and 1960s began to mature. Gold and silver are also exported.