B’ville has bigger plans for cocoa

THE Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) through the Department of Primary Industry (DPI) has bigger plans to contribute to its economic sector.
ABG acting secretary for DPI Kenneth Dovaro said this in Kokopo last Tuesday during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the ABG and Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea.
He said it was about linking up with the right people, getting connected, so the industry would stand on its feet.
He said the ABG could not do this alone but needed help from others through a network.
“I believe that together we will achieve a lot and there is a lot of very experienced and knowledgeable people that need to put their heads together to carry this assignment out to the people,” Dovaro said.
He said in terms of downstream processing and value added products, ABG was currently producing their own chocolate thus the ABG DPI wanted these powers to support people with upskilling.
“We have bigger plans to look at other cocoa products. We have some farmers who already have access to market overseas,” Dovaro said.