Goroka florists looking to establish market in NCD

FOUR women from Goroka travelled down to Port Moresby to sell their plants in the Floriculture Arts and Craft market set up by PNG Floriculture Association’s Mary Sauna at the Waigani Unity Mall in Port Moresby.
Alice Koito, Zakat Abori, Janet Frank and Akon Uheti all share a passion for gardening. They began learning the art when they were little girls watching their mothers work the land. Today they have taken their skills and turned them into full time jobs of supplying cut plants to florists around the country.
Goroka Urban local level government (LLG) women’s representative Koito said they were the only participants at the market who travelled down to the nation’s capital.
The other participants were all based in the National Capital District.
Their trip was partly sponsored by the LLG which provided them with two tickets while the women bought the other two tickets.
Koito said the group attended the floriculture market because of the variety of flowers they had to sell and to establish marketing opportunities for the Goroka District Floriculture Association.
“Our market has been good because they (customers) want flowers grown in the Highlands.”
She said the Highlands region, especially Eastern Highlands, had a wide variety of flowers and plants to showcase to the country. She added that conditions in the Highlands were perfect for growing flowers.
One plant and flower in high demand were succulents, desert plants imported from Australia, Philippines and Singapore by florists. Ironically, despite being desert plants the women have managed to cultivate them in the cooler high altitude climate of the Highlands.
“They grow best in the Highlands even though they are supposed to be grown in warmer places especially near the coast.”