Permit for coffee export

 MORE smallholders have been allowed to export coffee, cocoa and palm oil directly, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Tommy Tomscoll said.
Speaking at the first horticulture value chain conference last week, he said the government would continue to reform the agriculture sector.
Tomscoll said one of the initiatives was to issue export licences, which already began with the coffee industry.
“Seventy-nine lead farmers in 79 districts have been issued licences for direct export.”
Same changes would take place for cocoa in May.
“I am also regulating the oil palm industry and the act is now ready and before state solicitor,” he said.
Coffee Industry Corporation chief executive Anton Benjamin said the organisation was also pushing for quality export coffee.
Addressing the coffee growers in Obura-Wonenara district, Eastern Highlands recently, he said: “The quality of coffee must be maintained at all cost – from the tree to the cup.
“CIC is always available to help farmers, processors and exporters to make sure coffee quality is maintained.”
Benjamin was in the district to hand over coffee export licence to O-Wan Coffee Federation to enable local growers to moblise their coffee and export them instead of dealing with roadside buyers.
He said coffee exporters must now partner with growers and provide them assistance to produce coffee that would go through their processing plants.
Obura-Wonenara was the first district in the country to receive export licence.