By RONALD BULUM and JAMES APA GUMUNO
THE multi-million kina coffee industry has been hit by a shortage of jute bags throughout the country.
The coffee season peaks in April-June but already tonnes of coffee beans are sitting in warehouses in Mt Hagen and Goroka, waiting to be repacked into jute bags as is required.
At some plantations, workers are not picking all the ripened cherries as they do not have enough bags.
Checks at the Agmark, Farmset and Chemica stores in Lae revealed that they had run out of 60kg-sized bags.
They said they placed orders eight months ago.
Two exporters based in Goroka said they were still waiting for the bags that they had ordered and paid for in November.
Mt Hagen exporters were also facing similar problems.
Goroka and Mt Hagen together account for about 70% of PNG’s coffee exports.
It is understood that most of the jute bags used in PNG are imported from Bangladesh and Pakistan which have been hit by floods several times in the past year.
Due to the shortage, the exporters are reluctant to buy from farmers and middlemen who, sources said, depended on the income to pay for their children’s school fees.
Coffee Industry Corporation chief executive officer Ricky Mitio confirmed that flooding in Bangladesh and Pakistan had affected the supply of jute bags.
He said 15 containers would be arriving in Lae this weekend but he admitted that this would not be enough.
Maip Coffee Ltd owner Maip Dokta told The National in Mt Hagen that he usually used about 2,000 bags between January and March.
This time, he said, his cherries were ripening and falling to the ground because of the shortage.
He said if the situation continued into April-June, he would lose “hundreds of thousands of kina”.
Mr Goiba Kot, co-owner of OK Coffee Plantations in the Hagen Central and North Waghi districts said his workers were using buckets and any suitable container they could find.
“We normally need about 500 bags in January,” he said.
An employee at Monpi Coffee Export Ltd, who declined to be identified, said they were also in needs of jute bags.
Rotep Coffee Ltd is fortunate as it has some bags left over from last year.
Operations manager Wally Rotep said they normally required about 600 bags a month.
Unlike their counterparts in Lae, Farmset and Chemica in Mt Hagen said they still had bags available.
The bags are sold for about K2 to K3 each.