Community sets up coffee storage shed, mini huller

NEGABO in Karamui-Salt Nomane, Chimbu, is the first community to successfully set up a storage shed and mini coffee huller under a trial project by the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC).
The facility was opened earlier in the month.
CIC chief executive officer Charles Dambui, senior managers and technical officers flew into the area last Wednesday to open the facility and talk to the community.
It took almost four months to complete the facility since airfreighting materials into the area in May.
Dambui thanked the local community for embracing the project and allowing his technical officers to travel into the area to start the initial ground work.
He urged them to take ownership of the project, as CIC would continue to send in officers to check on the progress of this project.
“This facility belongs to you and I urge you to take ownership until such time when results prove that this trial project is commercially viable to continue.”
He said the CIC Freight Subsidy Scheme (FSS) concentrated on airfreighting parchment coffee out from such areas, however CIC was taking it a step further to trial airfreighting of green bean coffee.
Dambui said about 15-20 per cent of the coffee airfreighted contains the hull and it was uneconomical to pay the freight cost to move this unnecessary material out to market.
He said remote farmers would be able to sell at green bean prices and reduce market transaction costs.
Community representative Balau Peter thanked CIC for bringing something new into his area and asked for further support in terms of transporting coffee out.
He said the community destroyed 200 bags of parchment coffee in 2009 because it could not move it and did not want the same to happen and called for government support.