Kumul Agriculture to be finalised, official says

The National Business
Source:
The National, Tuesday July 26th, 2016

A SUBSIDIARY under Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd (KCHL) known as Kumul Agriculture, which will manage agri-business undertaken by KCHL, is expected to be finalised in a few weeks.
KCHL general manager of projects and investments Lutz Heim said Kumul Agriculture was intended to be a holding company to entities such as Sepik Agriculture Enterprise Ltd, which was the entity responsible for Sepik Plain Agriculture Project and others projects devoted to agri-business.
Minister for Public Enterprise and State Investments William Duma recently announced the signing of a joint venture agreement between Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) and Innovative Agro Industry Ltd (IAI) to develop its Sepik Plains Agriculture project. The project is located in the Yangoru-Saussia district of East Sepik.
Heim said the venture between KCHL and IAI would be a pioneering venture based on chicken production, a commercial cocoa plantation and grain production. Stock feed processing will also be associated with the chicken production venture.
“The structure of Kumul Agriculture is expected to be finalised in the next few weeks,” Heim said.
“It (Kumul Agriculture) will be the holding entity for a number of agricultural projects as and when they are developed by KCH,” he said. Meanwhile, Heim said parties of the Sepik Plain project were proceeding in accordance with KCHL schedule including finalisation of a detailed farm plan which the venture would operate.
“We are confident that people in the project area will see progress with actual construction commencing before the end of the year,” he said.
He said the board and management of KCH believed agriculture was a nation building industry and it was actively seeking other suitable investments around the country.
“As an example KCH is undertaking an extensive and detailed study into the possible cultivation of tropical fruits for the Asian market including market analysis, likely plantation sites, economic and logistics analysis. That report is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2016.”