Deal inked for company to buy cocoa from locals
PARADISE Foods Limited signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to buy cocoa in East and West Sepik provinces.
Paradise Foods chief executive officer James Rice said FAO would support about 10,000 farmers.
“These farmers are getting seedlings that will grow to supply us,” Rice told The National yesterday.
The company through its Queen Emma chocolate currently sources its cocoa from more than 2,000 farmers in the country.
Rice said a new K55 million chocolate factory would be built in Lae next year to cater for that growth.
“We need more farmers to supply our growth, and the FAO will work to educate farmers and improve quality. “We are not investing, we are agreeing to buy the farmer outputs, but the UN FAO is investing K340 million in the programme.”
He said Paradise Foods had two big projects.
“One is to double its business in the next five years and the other is to localise everything it bought,” he said. “We want our chocolate business to be 20 times bigger so we need more supply of cocoa beans, the UN FAO is helping with that at the farmer level in Sepik. And next year they will help us market our chocolate to European and North American markets.
“They agree with us that Queen Emma Chocolate could be PNG’s first global brand, and we want to make that happen.”
7 comments
Thankyou very much for the very first time we will establish our own chocolate factory
We need a lot more farmers around the country to start increasing their plots and increase production to meet domestic and international markets. Come on we can do this together it is a positive step and a game changer towards increase employment in agriculture sector where majority of the population is..
Thank you PARADISE Foods Limited and James Rice
WOW! What are very welcoming news to the cocoa growing farmers right across Momase and PNG as a whole. PNG Paradise Foods Ltd through the leadership of Mr. Rice really saw the needs of our farmers.
Good news for all hard-working cocoa growers and for PNG as a whole. Paradise Foods must be commended for their initiative in utilizing PNG cocoa and soon it will start exporting to Europe and North America. That is even more interesting!
It is a proud moment for PNG as a whole. Gold, Gas and mining around the country will disappear but Agriculture will remain till the end of time. Karimui Cocoa Project in Chimbu MUST be a number one priority by Chimbu MPS/Public Servants to support Paradise Foods in this successful story. I am buying Queen Emma chocolates here in Kundiawa shops, my kids love it very much. Thank you Mr. Rice, we are right behind you, with the backing of the current Government of Rt.Hon. James Marape will step in to make it happen.
Well done Mr Rice. You are doing something better for our country and its people
Every agricultural commodities have their unique markets, Cocoa, coffee and coconut where pre-Independent cash crops and were once attracting top of range prices on export. The good standards set by pioneer growers and plantation owner under expatriates are diminishing and PNG is trying to reinvent the system but fighting our own created problems and attitude.
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