Betel nut shows potential

EAST Sepik Governor Alan Bird says the sale of betel nut is a highly lucrative business and worth about K6 billion annually.
He said prior to being a member of parliament, he was engaged with running a plantation in Madang between 2005 and 2012 and had witnessed trade in the business.
“I had an interest to count the number of buses that were travelling from Bogia with betel nut, headed for the Highlands,” Bird said.
“And I recall one Sunday, I stayed the whole day next to the highway and I counted over 60 buses in an eight-hour period.
“I did a follow up and asked some of the bus drivers how much they made because they overloaded the buses to the point that they were destroying buses within 12 months,” he said. “But they were making enough money from the betel nut that they were taking to the Highlands that it did not matter they could buy several buses within that 12 month period.
“After that study, I went and planted 120,000 betel nut trees amongst the cocoa trees. “So I know it’s a highly lucrative business and I suspect myself that it’s probably worth in the region of maybe K6 billion a year.
“That’s just the numbers I did from about 2008.
“I think you need a way of being able to tap into that and perhaps not so much work in terms of structure.”