Spice farmers winning hotel, supermarket business

By LEMACH LAVARI

Two-hundred Eastern Highlands farmers have processed and sold their spices to hotels and department stores in Goroka, according to Spice Industry Development Programme director Mark Sakarias.
The spices are chilies, ginger, turmeric, cardamom and curry powder, which have been sold to six hotels and five major supermarkets in Goroka.
Sakarias said they sell about 15 cartons a month.
One carton contains 24 bottles, with each weighing 100 grams.
“Farmers are given seedlings to grow in their own plots,” Sakarias said. “Farmers also receive training from the SIDP on how to grow the spices and sort them.
“The SIDP then buys the spices from the farmers to process.
“Fresh chilies are bought for K1 per kilo and K3 per kilo dried. There is no other agency in the Highlands that is developing the spice industry.
“The aim of the SIDP is to eventually establish itself in other provinces.
Sakarias said the spices were currently available only in Goroka.
Papindo Supermarket butchery manager William Orake said customers favoured local spices because they were of a
higher quality and were affordable.
He said the store sold four cartons of spices in a week.
Sakarias estimates a market demand of 250 cartons a month, but the SIDP did not have the machinery to produce that much.
They currently have a makeshift central nursery and process their spices at a facility in Masumave.