Govt focused on rebuilding oil palm industry: Maneke

By NATHAN WOTI
IN line with the Government’s prioritising of the oil palm industry in this year’s budget, minister responsible Francis Maneke presented a cheque for K216,000 to New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL) for its Milne Bay operations yesterday.
Oil Palm Minister Maneke said the funding was a part of the Government’s allocation of K30 million to sustain the industry with the company’s Milne Bay Estate to implement a replanting programme.
Maneke made the presentation to Milne Bay Estate general manager Roland Soupa in Alotau.
“This funding is part of the Government’s invention and replanting programme that the ministry is carrying out across existing oil palm producing estates around the country,” he said.
Maneke said this was the first time the national government had allocated funding from the budget directly to the oil palm industry.
“The Government has allocated a direct funding in the national budget of K30 million to the industry,” he said.
“That has never been done before. Some of the issues we faced in the past and are facing today was because we did not have a ministry and direct funding from the national government budget,” the Nakanai MP said.
He saw the budgetary allocation was in part recognition for smallholders who had consistently grown and produced oil palm for the processing plant.
“This recognition by the Government is a result of the output result that you as smallholder growers have been producing all these years.
“The funding now is for the intervention programme to sustain our existing estates around the country such as Bialla (West New Britain), Milne Bay Estate and Higaturu in Oro,” Maneke said.
He added that Government’s focus was to expand the industry to Morobe, Madang, as well as East and West Sepik.
However, Maneke said that before the ministry look into expansion, it needed to first address challenges in existing estates especially seedlings and replanting, staff welfare, restructuring of Oil Palm Industry Corporation and passing the National Oil Palm Industry policy.