District subsiding cocoa prices for farmers

USINO-BUNDI in Madang is going into cocoa production with its district development authority (DDA) subsiding the price for farmers as an incentive.
Local MP and Minister for Education Jimmy Uguro said the district had already established a cocoa depot to allow farmers to sell their beans to a buyer.
He said the buyer was Linguan Ltd, an experienced cocoa buyer in Madang’s three districts of Sumkar, Madang and Rai Coast.
Uguro said each bag of cocoa beans would normally cost K400 but through the subsidy, farmers would get K430 per bag.
Uguro said the DDA had allocated K300,000 as first installment for the price subsidy and K250,000 as freight subsidy.
He said the price subsidy and other incentives were aimed at boosting economic activity through agriculture to complement other government initiatives such as infrastructure development, health and education.