He’s an executive chef and manages catering on Air Vanuatu. He also believes in organic food. David Holliday has a dream of serving only organic food on the airline.

It’s going to be a challenge because most of the organic food products and ingredients currently served in Vanuatu’s tourism sector are imported from Australia and New Zealand.
Vanuatu though can offer more in terms of organically certified food and the introduction of the Organic Tourism Standard for the Pacific will be a strong catalyst for making that happen.
‘Our main market is Australia and New Zealand and they are looking at healthier alternatives and organic food, but unfortunately, because of where we are, there are not a lot of food safety standards,’ he said. ‘Organics covers that already apart from the delivery.’’

‘Currently when we look at catering for the airline, we have to get chicken and so forth from New Zealand because they have health certificates and we simply can’t take the risk of any food-borne illnesses,’ he said.

Holliday believes Vanuatu has a unique environment that is clean, green and pest free. ‘Organics is just the next natural step,’ he said.

Holliday said 144 cruise ships are expected to visit Vanuatu this year, hugely increasing tourist arrivals and demand for local, healthy organic food. He was one of several stakeholders from the Pacific tourism sector who attended consultations on the Pacific Organic Tourism Standard held in Nadi, Fiji, in late March 2016. Under the auspices of POETCom, the development of the standard is being supported by the European Union-funded Pacific Agriculture Policy Project implemented by SPC.

The draft standard supports the development of the Pacific region as an organic destination by creating linkages between local farming communities and hotels and establishing organic value chains and organic certification.

POETCom has coordinated consultation on the standard, which is builds on the Pacific Organic Standards for on farm production, taking into account the criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and other global standards for organics.

The standard is designed to create a framework for strengthening producer-tourism supply chains and opening market opportunities for organic growers.
‘It can be applied to menu items, food and catering providers or whole destinations, and will create market opportunities for local farmers,’ said POETCom Coordinator Karen Mapusua.
‘The standard, which is one of a few in the world, will mean that tourism operators such as hotels will be able to buy fresh and value added products from organic-certified farmers through a certified organic value chain.

‘If the food, product or hospitality service is compliant with other environmental and social standards, the operator will qualify for certification under the Standard and will be able to use the ‘Organic Pasifika’ mark in their branding and marketing. ‘This means they have an organic guarantee they can use to market their destinations.’

Agreements from the consultations are being incorporated into the draft, which will be circulated again to stakeholders for review. The standard should be ready for piloting towards the end of 2016.