Fund to fight coffee pests

THE K12 million funding to deal with cocoa pod borer and the coffee berry borer is a big boost in the fight against the pests that could seriously damage the coffee industry, the Coffee Industry Corp (CIC) said yesterday.
The money will come from the K1.6 billion supplementary budget.
CIC chairman Pugma Kopi said yesterday they lauded the Somare-Temu Government for the funding, which only meant that it had recognised the danger poised by the two coffee pests.
Coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei, is the newest threat likely to spread into PNG from Indonesia, along with the coffee pod borer.
Mr Kopi confirmed that CBB was the world’s most-feared insect pest present and thriving along the PNG-Indonesian border.
CBB has the potential to reduce production by 50% of the current production within two years after it attacked the crop.
It was a “profit devourer” in many countries and entailed high cost of production.
This meant a lot of hard work and labour would be involved in sorting of beans when they get affected by CBB especially during harvest, parchment drying and green bean processing.