New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister announced that the country will contribute $US9.3 million over the course of four years, in an effort to support the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Plus (PHAMA) programme.

PHAMA Plus is a joint New Zealand-Australian initiative aimed to target export products of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Niue and Cook Islands.

The initiative, according to Mr Peters, would help producers, processors and exporters improve their productivity, quality of production, and capacity to biosecurity requirements.

"Export opportunities make an important contribution to the economic growth of Pacific Island countries and the livelihoods of their people," he said.

Mr Peters went on to say that up to 200,000 households are to be positively impacted by the initiative, with special focus directed towards making sure women and youth are included in the scheme, as well towards climate change resilience.

"Pacific producers struggle to gain and maintain access to international markets due to a range of challenges such as meeting the quality and biosecurity standards of export markets, maintaining a reliable scale of production and dealing with the increased frequency and severity of adverse weather events," Mr Peters said.

The first to receive support under the scheme are agricultural, forestry, fishery and handicraft products.