The Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation under it's $30 food voucher programme has requested the two authorized vendors to look for agents who can supply basic food items in remote parts of the country.

Ministry Media Officer, Anshoo Chandra said this request was made after another set of meetings took place between the ministry and the vendors as they found out that people living in the remote parts of the country had to travel far to use their vouchers.

She said Morris Hedstrom and New World Supermarket who are the authorized dealers have been given time to look for the agents before the next set of vouchers are given out in the coming months

The Ministry has also provided cash vouchers for those people who live in remote areas and these vouchers can be redeemed at any Post Fiji outlet.

Meanwhile, statistics received by the Ministry shows that a total of 16,267 people have been assisted under the food voucher programme and most number of people assisted either through food voucher or cash vouchers are from the Central Division with a total number of 3586, followed by Southern division with 3322 and 2976 people have been assisted in Labasa.