Grow Asia out to grow PNG co-ops

By LEMACH LAVARI
Agriculture cooperatives in PNG will have the opportunity to partner with foreign companies, says Grow Asia executive-director Grahame Dixie.
Dixie said Grow Asia was asked by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and the Australian department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to implement its agricultural development model here in PNG.
“We have been asked to come here to look at the possibility of using our model that we use in Asia in PNG,” he said.
“How it works is that if you bring the producers, the public sector and the private businesses together, they can make better decisions about plans and projects and if they collectively invest you get a better success rate.”
Dixie met with Minister for Commerce and Industry Wera Mori yesterday for discussions on how to engage cooperative societies. He was accompanied by DFAT director of agriculture and food security Fiona Lynn and other senior officials from DFAT and Grow Asia.
Grow Asia is a multi-stakeholder partnership that helps farmers access knowledge, technology, finance and markets to increase production and profit and environment sustainability.
It has reached 600,000 farmers in five Asian countries.
PNG is set to be the first Pacific country to work with Grow Asia.
Mori said any partnership between PNG, DFAT and Grow Asia would be focused on uplifting cooperative societies in the agricultural sector in PNG.
He said there was lack of government funding for cooperatives.
Mori said it would take about K100 million to support cooperatives.
He said his ministry needed the support offered by DFAT because cooperative societies were directly linked to the majority of people in PNG who depended on agriculture.
Mori said by helping to strengthen cooperative societies and productivity of agricultural commodities, the bulk of PNG’s people would be able to participate in business.
Lynn said there is potential to build cooperatives in new ways.
She commended the work done by companies such as Trukai Industries, New Britain Palm Oil and Innovative Agro Industries.
“We are really keen to work with you and get investments.”