Farmers getting hands on white copra

COCONUT farmers in Rabaul, East New Britain, now have support needed to get into the coconut business particularly white copra.
This follows the implementation of a memorandum of agreement signed between Rabaul and the Kokonas Indastri Korporesen (KIK) for coconut development improvement and enrichment programmes.
Rabaul administrator Peter Lapim said the district development authority (DDA) funded KIK programmes with K380,000 from its district services improvement programme (DSIP) funds to run programmes and training as well as purchase material for farmers.
ENB KIK coconut development officer Theresia Yareng said kiln pipes were purchased from the first payment of DSIP funding of K120,000 for the farmers to prepare fermentaries in each ward.
Yareng said the DDA approved K300,000 for the edible white copra price support programme following Gazelle and Kokopo; Rabaul farmers will now sell their white copra for K4/kg.
“We have been focusing on Kokopo and now we are moving to Rabaul with this much needed support from the district we will be working collaboratively to run more training to equip farmers, ” he said.