K1.2mil for Tabar group

THE Tabar Group of Islands Cocoa Cooperative Society has received about K1.2 million from the World Bank to carry out a cocoa rehabilitation and development project.
The project proposal was developed by Simberi Gold Company Limited (SGCL) through the PNG agriculture commercialisation and diversification project (PACD), to facilitate the development of a competitive and diversified cocoa value chain.
The partnership project is to integrate small-holder producers in Simberi, Tatau, Mapua and Tabar Island, in new business models, technical capacity building, aggregated field production and post-harvest management and improving competitive markets for the cocoa produce in Tabar.
SGCL community relations manager Andrew Taram said the creation of a cocoa industry as a sustainability project that the St. Babara Simberi Operations supported was not a foreign concept.
“It is a practice that fits the current business model of creating post closure sustainable businesses through the cooperative approach.”
The SGCL worked with the Tabar Island cocoa farmers to finalise the registration of the first Tabar Group of islands Cooperative Society last year.
It paved the way for the PACD funding that supplements SGCL’s funding to accelerate a functional cooperative entity to be managed and owned by the Tabar farmers themselves.
“Our focus on planning for an eventual mine closure is on ensuring that sustainability is not only lip-service but practically executed, to do what we say and deliver to the promise.”