Seve Lausaveve, former secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Tuvalu, explains that as early as the 1960s, rice and flour imported mainly from Indonesia and China began to replace the traditional crops of copra, taro, and pandanus fruit, and have in fact become the staple foods.
前吐瓦魯環境部次長 Seve Lausaveve 解釋，早在 1960 年代，主要進口自印尼、中國的米及麵粉就取代了傳統作物（椰肉、芋頭、林投果等）而成為主食，「人們的口味、偏好一旦改變就很難回頭。」