Plans for K15/kg levy – The National

**Vanilla being weighed to be bought** **by a vanilla buyer. It is one of the country’s leading spice products. – Nationalpic by PETER ESILA**

By DALE LUMA
THE PNG Spice Industry Board plans to collect a K15 per kilogramme levy from vanilla exporters as part of a review of the PNG Spice Industry Act 1989, says chief executive officer Nelson Simbiken.
Simbiken told The National that levies would be imposed on other spice exporters once rates were established.
He said the board had never collected any levy in the past 30 years.
The money will be used to improve the country’s spice industry.
“One major reform that we are undertaking is the collection of a spice export levy,” Simbiken said.
“We want to start collecting levy for vanilla – around K15 per kilo regardless of quality.
“We are starting with vanilla and this will be conveyed to all our exporters.
“Before an export is made, they pay the levy before the spice board certifies the export.
“That’s the new regulation that we will put in place immediately to assist the development of spice, once the act is amended.”
Simbiken said it was necessary to support the spice industry.
“We will also have inspectors in provinces where spices can be exported so that quality can be certified before they can be exported,” he said.
“We will establish the exportable standards in the country by way of regulation.”