As a young girl, Vilimaina Rokai, grew up around the tree of life. Her village of Navutulevu, Serua, was by the sea and coconuts were part of every day life.
It provided the shade for playing on the beach with other village children and was useful for food, firewood and raw materials used for shelter and art.
“We were told to go to the bush, collect the coconuts, pile them up, come down the creek and go back to the village on a raft,” the 54-year-old recalled.
“I grew up in the village, came to Suva to board at Ballantine Memorial School and after that I went to the Fiji College of Agriculture in Koronivia to do a diploma in tropical agriculture. Eventually, after the many years of pursing an education and a career, she was led back to coconuts that she first got acquainted with as a child. Last year Ms Rokai started producing virgin coconut oil after leaving the Ministry of Agriculture where she had worked.
“My cousin ordered virgin coconut oil every week from me and this urged me to make more.”
“And as time went by, my love for making virgin coconut oil began and also after my tavale (cousin) shared her experience of how it healed a young boy’s cut. After leaving fulltime work, Ms Rokai did some training with Dr Austin at Teitei Fiji, a permaculture farm in the Sigatoka Valley that empowers people to live sustainably and close to nature.
“Then I did another round of training in June and I started using all these skills to produce quality virgin coconut oil.”
She said the meaning behind her product name, ‘dravia’, was the ‘volume and glowing effect’ that virgin coconut gave to the skin. She claimed that the iTaukei word and the root word of dravia was from the province of Serua. “The word dravi means good.”
Ms Rokai and her family operates from Farm Rd, Nakasi. Like the copra trade of the good old days, the job of producing oil can be backbreaking, especially the husking and scraping process.
“Apart from collecting coconuts, it usually takes about two days to make the virgin coconut oil.
“I usually go to homes where there are coconut trees and buy them because the coconuts that I have at home are not enough. “In the long term, I would like to increase my coconut supply, especially the continuity of it and plant more coconut trees at home.”
During a recent mini market in Suva, she added a new product to her oils – desiccated coconut.
“A day before the market I called the head of research in Koronivia seeking advice and support on how I could add value to the coconut residue that I had as byproducts.
“They supported me in the drying process, packing and weighing while I had roasted the grated coconut at home.
“If you already have the interest and knowledge, along the way you may be taught something else. Take them on board. What you can do is to connect these ideas and skills and make the best out of them.”
