Look after crop: Trader

By PETER ESILA
THE vanilla business like any other business ventures can be profitable when done correctly, according to a buyer and exporter.
East Sepik vanilla buyer-exporter Nollan Fale, who is managing director of Ultra-Marine Holdings Ltd, said a lot of work went into producing a quality product to export.
“Vanilla business is good business like any other business but it has to be cared for and prepared in a clean working area as it is considered as a food product or spice,” he said.
Fale said careful selection and grading had to be done.
The current prices are: A grade – K200/kg; B grade – K130/kg; C grade – K80/kg; Export price – US$280 (K975.60) to US$380 (K1,324) per kg
Fale deals with more than 200 vanilla farmers mostly from Wewak.
“Once our reputation is damaged, it will be very hard to build again as most of our international importers only communicate with us via e-mail and phone so we operate based on trust,” Fale said.
“Any slight mistake will definitely make our importers lose trust and we may lose our customers.
“But all in all, I would like to encourage any person who is interested to do this business to do it as it is a profitable business when done correctly.”
Fale said he usually exported about 10 tonnes per year.
“But during the lockdown, we can only send 100kg per month, our importers are from New Zealand, Los Angeles (USA), India, Italy and we are now in negotiations to export to Israel,” he said.
“It was very challenging in terms of price when we had Batas/Indonesian market open, the price offered by Batas is quite high and so we had to buy at a higher price locally and export, profit margin was around 30 per cent to 50 per cent.”
Fale said the Covid-19 lockdown had given a chance to buy at lower prices and export at higher prices earning from 100 to 200 per cent.
He said another challenge would be exports during the pandemic period.
“Most of our importers stopped buying and this has also slowed us down.” He said was dealing with air freight companies in Wewak was another challenge.
“I have experienced in couple of occasions, my exports being delayed for almost two weeks and has caused a lot of issues with my buyers.
“Cured vanilla pods are very vulnerable if not attended to for two to three days, mold starts forming and weight starts to drop causing the vanilla to loose it’s quality and weight hence the price will obviously drop and doesn’t meet the importer’s requirement.”
Fale’s venture is a family business as he took over from his father who started it in 2000.
The business employs 20 part time workers who are engaged when required.
“Our main business area and office is in Wewak, we do direct export from Wewak to our buyers, we also have an associate office in Singapore and Hong Kong.”