Coffee industry should have its own ministry, Basil says

Business

BULOLO MP Sam Basil has suggested that the coffee industry should have its own ministry since it was generating around K500 million annually.
He said it was generating foreign exchange into the economy.
He told the National Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council Development forum yesterday that the current annual coffee production in Papua New Guinea constituted 1 per cent of the world market – which was equivalent to K500 million. Therefore he would like to see that any cash crop generating K500 million have its own ministry “as it would be too big to come under the department of agriculture”.
Basil said mining and petroleum came under one ministry while gas and oil had their own ministry “to cater for its magnitude in terms of their operations and how much they generated to the economy”.
“We would like to see the same in coffee and cocoa,” Basil told the forum. “I believe that the 2010 figures for cocoa was K370 million.
There are variety of agriculture plans that fall under the department of agriculture.
“It is too much to concentrate on.”