Mum of six reaping rewards of venturing into cocoa industry

mother of six, Ne Mike, from Huon-Gulf district, Morobe, has grown a cocoa business since 2019.
Prior to venturing into the cocoa business, Mike used to sell garden food to earn an income to support her family.
Mike came to learn about the economic benefits of cocoa through Outspan PNG, a subsidiary of international cocoa exporter Olam International. She was determined to start a fermentry and began saving towards this dream.
With the help of her husband Mike Eboareng, of Jifasing village and her children, she planted cocoa trees.
According to Mike, a cocoa farmer could start a fermentry once they have over 1,000 cocoa trees to their name.
“We planted over 7,000 cocoa trees,” she said.
“Because I have six children, a plot of a thousand for each of them and a thousand for my husband and I.” Azuazu was granted a licence to operate in 2019 and now has more than 30 farmers who sell wet beans to her, 22 of whom are registered farmers under her fermentry.
“There’s been an increase in farmers this year alone because of the cocoa price which has increased to K1.60 per kilo; also, because I use the digital scale so more customers prefer to come to me with the assumption that a digital scale is more accurate,” she said.