Karamui cocoa in ‘Top 50’

Business

THE cocoa produced in Chimbu is ranked as one of Papua New Guinea’s best and in the world’s top 50, says a senior agriculture official.
Agriculture and Livestock secretary Daniel Kombuk said Karamui’s cocoa was in the top 50 of the London market.
Kombuk revealed this on Friday during the launch of Mt Olga Coffee Development Association at Ulka village at the border of Jiwaka and Western Highlands.
He said if Karamui could produce high quality cocoa there was no reason other Highlands provinces could not do the same.
Kombuk said his department would assist farmers in Baiyer (WHP) and Jimi (Jiwaka) to develop their cocoa potential.
He said cocoa was a good cash crop not only grown in coastal provinces, but could also grow well at higher altitudes.
Meanwhile, Kombuk urged the government to help farmers transport their produce direct to markets in the region as well as further away such as the Middle East.
“There are good prices for cash crops like vegetables and commodities like coffee, cocoa, vanilla, and others on the world market,” he said.
Kombuk said with good infrastructure such as airports, a cargo plane would take less time to carry cash crops to Indonesia and Hong Kong and even to Arab countries within a day or hours.
“The market is already there, it’s just a matter of us transporting our produce there to make money,” he said.
Kombuk said farmers in rural areas would greatly benefit from the premium price and it would encourage them to produce more.
He said over the years, some farmers had turned their coffee plots into vegetables gardens because they had not benefited through better prices for their coffee.
He said this had discouraged farmers from continuing to invest their time and effort in coffee.
“Our people are not price makers but price takers, this needs to change,” he said. “I want to commend the Mt Olga Coffee Development Association for organising themselves to export their coffee directly overseas and get premium prices.”
Kombuk said another coffee farmers group in Eastern Highlands was also exporting.”