PNG hit hard by decline of coffee plantations, CIC boss says

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Tuesday February 25th, 2014

 By MALUM NALU in Goroka

THE demise of the coffee plantation sector has come at a massive cost to Papua New Guinea, Coffee Industry Corporation acting chief executive officer Anton Benjamin says.

He said that in Goroka on Saturday as the Eastern Highlands capital prepared to host Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to launch new government incentives to revitalise the industry on Friday.

Benjamin said the plantation sector used to account for 27% of total coffee production and 30-35% of revenue in the early 1970s up to the early 1990s.

“It carried the name of PNG as an origin of high quality coffee on the world market due to good management and adoption of best practices in production and processing,” he said.

“Since then, yield levels have declined from two tonnes to less than 500kg per hectare, and the number of plantations has dwindled from 600 to fewer than 300.

“As a result, coffee production and volume for export has been declining over the years and the industry’s target of achieving the anticipated two million bags remains wanting.”

Benjamin said the decline of the plantation sector commenced with the shift of ownership of many plantations from foreign to local entities under the government’s plantation redistribution and acquisition scheme introduced after independence in 1975.