Kiribati is well-known for its outrigger canoes, said to be the fastest in the Pacific with their asymmetrical narrow knife-like hulls. But in the near future, it may also be known for its high quality crafts.

Kiricraft Central Pacific, which is under the Kiribati Foreign Investment has formed a business relationship with Seacrest Marine of Queensland, Australia, to develop a commercial boat building industry in Kiribati. “This is the first time high quality boats have been constructed and exported from Kiribati,” says Kiricraft managing director, Michael Savins.

“The biggest hurdle, in any business, is finding clients who want boats and who are also prepared to take the risk of having their boats built on the small remote Pacific island.”

The other major challenge was to prove to clients who gave the company a chance, that their boats would be built to export standards and delivered on schedule.

“We started on 1st February, 2006, and have built a boat shed and moulds for hand laying epoxy composite then we were able to export our first boat by January 26, 2007.

The boat shed has now been extended to allow the company to be able to build six boats per year - one in every two months. At the moment, Kiricraft employs 24 people with different skill levels but the growth of the company has seen the recruitment of another Australian boatbuilder.

“Shipping cost of materials from Australia to Kiribati and then the shipping costs of completed boats to Australia are our major concern. Kiribati being a remote island nation has to live with expensive shipping costs as a fact of life,” Savin says.

A 10.5 meter catamaran will cost approximately A$350,000 if it was built in Australia but it will cost approximately between A$50,000 to A$70,000 less if was built in Kiribati. All materials for the boat are imported and would cost about 60 percent of the total cost of making the boat, shipping cost would be around A$25,000 for smaller boats (shipping in of materials and shipping back of finished boat) and about A$40, 000 for bigger boats.

“It was a challenge in the beginning but now there are more orders coming in and we will slowly put in a profit margin,” Savin says.

But apart from these challenges, Savins says these is a need to develop skills if smaller nations are to compete with more developed countries.The lack of skills has meant a lot of hard work for Kiricraft but Savins says the clients were satisfied with their end product.

(The above article is an excerpt taken from the Fiji Islands Business magazine, March 2007, p. 38)