A STUDY by ANZ's economists, has suggested that Fiji could perhaps look to India as a major export market.
Fiji's trade complimentary index (TC) rankings were lower than most in the region but with India, the score was 26.2.
Fiji's TC rankings were lower than many regional peers, and India came out on top with a score of 26.2.
The TC suggests prospects for international trade and how well imports and exports match in two economies.
The index ranges from 0 to 100, a zero reading suggests a mismatch in the imports of one country and the exports of the other while a reading of 100, means the import structure of one country perfectly matches the export structure of the other, suggesting this pair of countries have great potential as trading partners.
Australia and New Zealand followed India in the TC ranking for Fiji.
In 2010, Australia received 23.1 per cent of all Fijian exports, New Zealand received 6.5 per cent, and India only received 0.3 per cent.
"Given that the import basket of India matches the export basket of Fiji better than traditional partners and the share of exports to India remains quite small, there is strong potential to intensify exports to India," the research by Daniel Wilson and Paul Gruenwald said.
Philippines, they noted, also had a high ranking as well.
In the region, the economists said there had not been much change since 2010 with Papua New Guinea (PNG) still dominating both the export and import side with a share of 81 per cent and 63 per cent respectively.
"Fiji was next with the second largest share of imports which also highlighted the largest trade deficit in the Pacific," the research said.
"Solomon Islands followed, where log and gold shipments brought about a 0.9ppt climb in its share of Pacific exports. Vanuatu, Timor Leste and Samoa make up the remaining shares, with all importing more than they exported."
Australia remained the main export market for the Pacific with $4.1bn.
The research said there was a substantial room for new markets for the Pacific.
One of the positive observations of the research was that the Pacific has been accessing more export markets, however, the numbers were very low.