The Tonga Squash Council says that this year's squash harvest will fall short of the 5,000 tonnes targeted for export this year.
The council's secretary general, Steve Edwards, said that their first shipment left Nuku'alofa on October 24 with 2,428 tonnes, which was under their target of 2,500 tonnes.
By the end of last week they had only loaded 1,400 tonnes for the second shipment.
The Matangi Tonga reports that last year Tonga exported 10,215 tonnes of squash for the season.
