Six wards form cooperative to supply local produce

SIX wards in Gazelle, East New Britain, have formed a cooperative to supply local produce to local markets and for export to improve the people’s livelihood.
The East New Britain Agriculture Corporation (ENBAC) is a registered farm group made up of six wards – Tinganagalip, Vunagogo, Napapar No.3 and No.4 and Navunaram in the Central Gazelle local level government (LLG) and Vunadawai in the Reimber-Livuan LLG – and has plans to expand to other wards and districts.
According to the operations manager and founder, Stanley Eremas said the group began as a small cooperative.
Eremas said ENBAC was an agent to the Government and partnering with agriculture organisations such as Kokonas Indastri Koporesen (KIK), Cocoa Board of PNG (CBPNG) Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), Fresh Produce Development Authority (FPDA), Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Productive Agriculture Commodity Diversification (PACD).
Eremas said ENBAC focused on both fresh produce, animal farming and commercial farming and was working on fish farming initiative at Navunaram which was supported by the Gazelle development authority (DDA) with K21,000 worth of materials.
“This journey started four years ago. We started this initiative and ran it without Government support,” Eremas said.