Milne Bay, a consistent producer of palm oil

MILNE Bay generates about K20 million annually from oil palm despite facing challenges over the last 40 years, says official.
Milne Bay Growers Association chairman Stuart Tatauro said this during the visit by Oil Palm Minister Francis Maneke visited Alotau to the province yesterday.
He said Milne Bay had been a consistent palm oil producer apart from West New Britain and Northern.
The province has about 800 smallholder farmers who help produce up to 15 tonnes of palm oil annually.
“However, about 24 blocks are run down because of things like a lack of fertiliser and over-aged trees,” Tatauro said.
“There is also challenge of our youth being given opportunities within the industry and a standard pricing for fertiliser or Government subsidies for fertilizer as well as prices for harvests,” Tatauro said.
He added that with the new ministry now in place, the Government needed to consider oil palm as a major crop and look at it in terms of funding at that level.
Maneke said a new National Oil Palm policy would be passed which would capture all the concerns from stakeholders and smallholder farmers.
“For so long this industry has been dormant but contributed immensely to the revenue of the country,” he said.
“Over the last 60 years up until recently, oil palm has been the only cash crop to reach K2 billion in revenue.
“That’s quadruple the revenue generated by coffee, cocoa and vanilla,” Maneke said.
“We already have the National Oil Palm Policy where we have brought in private stakeholder NBPOL (New Britain Palm Oil Limited) to the review committee to give us real feedback on the challenges smallholder farmers face in growing oil palm,” Maneke added.
This was the first visit by Maneke to the province since a visit by then Agriculture Minister John Simon in 2018.
Simon presented K70,000 to the Oil Palm Industry Corporation to buy fertiliser for smallholder growers.