Maprik eyes expansion of cocoa plans

By LUKE KAMA
MAPRIK in East Sepik is looking at expanding its cocoa programme throughout the district and the Central Sepik area over the next five years, starting this year, says MP John Simon.
Simon told The National yesterday that the district development authority’s (DDA) aim was to plant around 2.2 million seedlings a year.
“We are now building cocoa nurseries and bud wood gardens in 21 economic zones in the district and have a target of 100,000 seedlings per economic zones,” he said.
Simon said the DDA had agreed to set up a 20ha seed garden to supply the seeds to the economic zones in Maprik, Wosera Gawi, Ambunti-Dreikikir, Yangoru, Nuku and Lumi – known as Central Sepik.
Simon said that based on their cocoa expansion programme, the project would require a total cost of around K35 million to successfully implement it over five years period.
“From this investment at today’s cocoa market price, cocoa export will earn the district about K150 million annually,” he said.
“Imagine, that’s just for one province and if we have other four to five provinces implementing similar concept, we can be able to generate significant revenue from cocoa export.”