Coffee sector eyes top markets

 By AUGUSTINE DOMINIC

THE coffee industry is targeting high value markets for PNG coffee, Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) marketing team leader Charles Dambui says.

He revealed this in Goroka at a presentation to a high profile delegation from Japan recently. 

The visitors include Jun Shibuya, the PNG honorary consul designate in  Osaka, Japan; Atsushib Ueshima of MOC Coffee, a leading buyer of PNG coffee and Hiroyuki Moriyama, former member of the Japanese parliament of Sakai City.

They were in the country to familiarise themselves with the coffee and tourism industries and to seek possible investment opportunities in both sectors.

Acting chief executive officer Anton Benjamin, who welcomed the visitors at the CIC head office in Goroka, expressed gratitude for their visit.

“Goroka is the heart of the PNG coffee industry, which employs more than four million and your visit would open the door for more PNG coffee to Japan,” Benjamin said.

Dambui said PNG supplies only 1% of the world’s coffee while Japan buys 10% of the total coffee exported.

“To get more value, PNG is targeting high-value markets as a response to local constraints and economic threats alongside growing opportunities in the world market. 

Dambui said the industry has shifted its policies to focus on facilitating the participation of producers in production, quality control and marketing, inter-multi-disciplinary research, extension work and forging direct tie ups with overseas buyers.

“As a result, the growers are now focused on improving coffee quality that would command better prices,” Dambui said.