[trx_title type=”2″ style=”none” align=”left” bottom=”10″]Asuao Pouono[/trx_title]

Agricultural Scientist
Board Member – Samoa Trust Estate Corporation (STEC)

Asuao Kirifi Pouono is an agricultural scientist with a DTA (Alafua), BSc (UCDavis) and an MPhil from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. Asuao has worked in awide range of areas such as agronomy, breeding, biosecurity, and food safety at Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) during 1980-2010.

Asuao was Assistant Chief Executive Officer-Quarantine (2001-2007) and CEO-MAF (2007-2010), and was a recipient of a special award-“New Zealand Prime Minister’s Fellow”-in March 2008. He was a Sub-consultant/ Country Manager for the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access-PHAMA/ PHAMA-Plus program (2011-2023), and is also a Board Member for the Samoa Trust Estate Corporation (STEC) since January 2024. Asuao is now representing Samoa at the Pacific Regenerative Agritourism Network (PRAN); one of the regions in the Global Agritourism Network that was established in Italy in 2018.

Asuao became an IGCAT Expert in 2024, and he’s now advocating for PRAN and building connections with other branches in the sector, including Gastronomy.