New roof eyed to make cocoa meet market needs

FIXED-roof cocoa fermenting kits will have to be changed to slide-roof to avoid smoke content in cocoa beans to meet international standards, a Cocoa Board official says.
Regional manager Anton Ningi, addressing villagers at Mangiang in Umi-Atzera local level government of Markham in Morobe, told them to be ready for change.
He said those currently using fixed-roof cocoa fermenting kits would have to change to slide-roof to meet standards and quality demanded by overseas buyers and manufacturers.
“The slide-roofed fermenting kit will allow sunlight to dry beans. That leads to smoke content in the beans reduced as much as possible.”
Ningi warned farmers that they would lose their licences and fermenting kits if they did not follow board rules and regulations.
He said the board would work closely with Outspan PNG Ltd, Agmark and other major cocoa exporters over the next few months to make sure that all fermenting kits met standards and requirements.
Ningi said this was to help farmers produce quality and quantity.
National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority regional manager William Sawang told said for any cash crop to be exported to overseas markets, it must meet the highest quality standards required internationally.