Aust-PNG partnership boost for women in business

Business

CAROL Vale, the co-founder of an indigenous Australian bush food and game meat company based in Brisbane called Game Enough? has benefitted from the Laikim Sister pilot programme.
Game Enough? creates food and beverages that adopt the flavours of the Australian bush.
The company imports crocodile meat from PNG.
Vale will, through the Laikim Sister programme, export food such as kangaroo and emu meat to PNG.
“This programme has given me opportunities and connections to export to PNG which I had not considered before,” she said.
Laikim Sister is an Australian Government-supported pilot programme under the PNG-Australia partnership that connects indigenous Australians to PNG women entrepreneurs.
Through the programme, Vale met Nellie Varmari who runs a coffee wholesale business, Central Mamina Fresh Coffee.
Varmari sells coffee which she sources from the Owen Stanley Range.
She has worked in the coffee industry for many years but only started the Central Mamina Fresh Coffee 18 months ago.
“I was working for PNG Coffee, and then Superior Coffee, and I thought to myself, I could do this,” Varmari said.
“Coffee grows in my region,”
The Laikim Sister cohorts will meet in Cairns, Australia this month.