Coffee berry borer threatens PNG

 By MALUM NALU

THE Papua New Guinea coffee industry is under serious threat from coffee berry borer (CBB), a detailed report released yesterday by the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) says.

CIC entomologist Otto Ngere said in the report, the outcome of  a CBB incursion prevention and management workshop in Indonesia last month, that the pest had the potential to destroy PNG’s coffee industry by affecting quality and quantity.

That would impact the livelihood of a large percentage of the rural population.

CBB has already penetrated PNG from Indonesia, being discovered at Yapsie in West Sepik in Nov 2009, but was successfully contained by scientists from CIC, the National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority (NAQIA) and Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL).

Leading coffee scientist Dr Mark Kenny, who is CIC’s general manager of research and grower services, told The National yesterday that CIC needed additional funding to maintain surveillance and monitoring activities since the initial funding by the government in 2006 had dried up.

“The three million people whose livelihoods depend on coffee is under serious threat,” he said.

“Surveillance and monitoring activities are critical in early detection of the incursion of CBB and if left undetected it will be too late to contain the spread.  

“CIC is working on a national executive council submission for injection of additional funding.”      

CBB is the most-serious pest of coffee in many of the major coffee-producing countries though it isn’t the only pest of the coffee plant.

The pest causes premature fruit fall and reduced bean weight and quality. Losses can range from 50 to 100%.

 “The pest is present in Indonesia and is spreading towards PNG,” Ngere said.

“It has now spread to Wamena and Oksibil in the central highlands of Papua province. 

“These areas are closer to the PNG/Indonesia border. 

“Although CBB is not present in the country, its current occurrence in Papua province of Indonesia and other neighbouring countries, including New Caledonia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, is a signal that its incursions can happen anytime, being influenced by increased trade, tourism and flow of people between them and PNG.