Using firewood cheaper: Vendor

Business

By Memo Hauke
INO Simore sells firewood for a living and says he is encouraging families to cut down on their electricity bills.
Simore from Goilala in Central has been selling firewood for the past 16 years. He is based at the Hohola market in Port Moresby.
“I started selling a pack of firewood for K2. Over the years the prices have increased and now it is K5,” he said.
He said he earned between K400 and K500 weekly.  “In a way, I believe I am helping PNG Power (by encouraging people) to cook over the fire rather than relying on power and gas,” he said.
In Port Moresby, because of the housing situation, people living in the settlement need firewood to cook every day,” Simore said.
He moved to Port Moresby in 2000 looking for work and lived in a settlement where he needed fire to cook. “The idea started there. I eventually ended up making arrangement to resell them and now it has turned into a business,” he said.
“Most of my customers come to buy the firewood because they say cooking on the fire makes food taste better than on gas or power. Well the old ways never die.”
He is married but has no children. He and his wife look after his nephews and nieces and support their education.
He employs unemployed youths at Hohola to chop logs of wood for firewood.