ENB market authority wants quality bulb onions

Islands

EAST New Britain market authority wants to the quality of bulb onions into the province to be on par with imports from New Zealand.
Authority manager Herman Valvalu said last week that they were competing with New Zealand to produce quality onions on the market.
Currently, the market authority has an arrangement in place where it had begun importing onions from Gembogl in Chimbu.
This follows the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the provincial market authority, Fresh Produce Development Agency and the provincial administration four months ago.
Last month, over 300 bags of bulb onions from Chimbu were delivered to Kokopo market.
Valvalu said currently there were less than 60 bags left from this supply which has been sold to business houses and education institutions in East New Britain and at the market.
“We are anticipating another 200 bags from Gembogl soon,” he said.
“This is a result of the network we have put in place which indicates to us that interest is picking up in the Highlands to supply food crops not grown in ENB.”
He said the ban on imports of bulb onion into the country was lifted as the demand for the crop was not entirely met and the Fresh Produce Development Authority was coordinating farming of quality onions.
Valvalu admitted farming of bulb onions in East New Britain was at a stage where it could not really meet demand and the onus was on farmers to take onion production seriously.
He said currently Kokopo market was building a cool storage room to store vegetables arriving from outside the province.