Ialibu mothers send vegetables to Moresby store

A women’s group in the Ialibu district of Southern Highlands is sending its first container of fresh vegetables to Stop N Shop supermarket in Port Moresby.
The mothers in the rural areas held a big celebration at Ialibu station when the container left with their fresh produce.
Mama Helpim Mama Foundation is getting a contract from Stop and Shop for a container of vegetables a week.
Stop and Shop spokesman Raz Chai said the company wanted to promote local produce and give money back to farmers in the rural areas.
“We want to support local farmers by buying their produce and selling them, not to make profit but sharing cost for cost,” he said.
Chai said the company spent more than K13 million annually to buy fresh produce and products from local farmers in the country to resell them in the supermarket.
He commended the founder and chairperson of the women’s group, Ruth Humbi, and adviser Karl Yalo for organising the mothers in the rural areas to earn their living by cultivating their land.
Humbi told the mothers to start cultivating the land.
She told the mothers yesterday that they had secured the market and their duty now was to meet the demand on a weekly basis.
“The supermarket is spending more than K13 million to buy local fresh produce and if you want this money to come to Ialibu, you must start working on your land now,” she said.
Humbi said Stop and Shop wanted two containers every week but, they were starting with one and the more crops they grew, the better. “I was proud to see mothers have money in their string bags on Wednesday to go into the shops and buy rice and canned fish,” she said.
She told in demand were cabbages, carrots, broccoli, pineapple, kaukau and potatoes.