Shareholders urged to settle issues

 SHAREHOLDERS of millions of kina worth of coffee plantations in Jiwaka are being tasked to resolve ownership issues and make their plantations operational.

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Tommy Tomscoll issued the challenge in Jiwaka last Saturday when launching more than 500,000 new coffee seedlings in a newly established coffee nursery.

“There are a lot of big coffee plantations in the Waghi valley once employed many people, created economic spin offs and helped to drive the coffee industry in PNG. 

“However these plantations have ceased to operate due to issues affecting shareholders. The shareholders must now sit down and discuss to find ways to resolve this issue. 

“Once you solve the issue, the government and the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) will find interventions to revive the plantations to come back to operate again,” Tomscoll, the Middle-Ramu MP said.

He said the government had invested more money into some of these plantations to help resolve these issues but no tangible outcome was reached.

Tomscoll said the CIC was now setting up an office in Jiwaka with the largest central coffee nursery to distribute seedlings to growers.

“One of the important tasks will be to resolve issues affecting shareholders that forced big coffee plantations to cease operations. I call on shareholders to come together and resolve issues affecting the operations of the plantations,” Tomscoll said.

One of the plantations is the famous Waghi Mek plantation which employs hundreds of people and produces a lot of coffee for the highlands and PNG.