Kundiawa to host cocoa excellence show next month

A COCOA excellence show will be held in Kundiawa, Chimbu next month to encourage more growers in the Highlands.
Cocoa Board chief executive officer Boto Gaupu said during a fundraising dinner in Port Moresby on Friday that the national cocoa show of excellence awards was to find the best cocoa sample from licensed cocoa fermentary owners or co-operatives and to link them with niche or specialty markets overseas.
Gaupu said Karimui in Chimbu was one of the cocoa growing areas in the Highlands that had more than 1.3 million cocoa trees.
Over the past six years, it was worth more than K600,000 in export revenue.
Gaupu said cocoa was also grown in Gumini (Chimbu), Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands and Southern Highlands.
“This year’s competition saw over 200 cocoa samples collected in the 14 traditional cocoa-producing provinces and other provinces who started producing cocoa as well,” Gaupu said.
The new growth areas which entered the show this year are Eastern Highlands, Chimbu, Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Morobe, and the Sepik region.
Prime Minister James Marape, Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon, Chimbu Governor Michael Dua and other Chimbu MPs showed their support for the show.
The Chimbu government will allocate K1 million to the show.
Marape said the Government had put a lot of emphasis on agriculture and the people must embrace that.