CPL gives Reka a chance

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
CITY Pharmacy Limited group has given a Gulf woman the opportunity to venture into her sago selling business.
Mai-June Reka, 24, said she was from Lese-Oulai where sago is plenty.
Reka said she developed the business idea when seeing her relatives who usually travel up from Gulf to Port Moresby just to sell their sago produce.
Reka said it was a costly and unsafe exercise for her people.
“They have to pay for the transport, travel long distances into the city and become burdens to their relatives in terms of accommodation as they had to stay for long weeks just to wait for their sago stocks to sell out.
“Seeing that, I came up with this business idea last year to help my people buy sago from them straight from the village and then take them into the city to resell.
“I am trying to ease their burdens on expensive travels, ease burdens on their relatives in the city and help them avoid sitting under the hit of the sun at the markets in Port Moresby,” Reka said.
She engaged her siblings and other youths in her community to travel down to the village, buy sago and travel back to Port Moresby.
Since they started the project, CPL was the first retail outlet they actually engaged with.
Reka resells the sago to CPL fresh produce market in Port Moresby. CPL then weighs the sago, pack them in 1 kilogram packets and resell them at K7.95 per packet.
CPL group special project manager at the produce distribution centre at Waigani Raj Shahi said their aim was to support local communities and farmers.
“We are not only looking at Sago as we are focusing on farmers with every other fresh vegetable.”