Vanilla buyers urged not to tamper with beans

VANILLA buyers in East Sepik continue to tamper with the quality of the beans by injecting them to get the extra weight or boiling them with coffee to get a darker colour, it has been revealed.
Two street buyers in Maprik, Jim Gulmiya and Roger Yapam, said this while appealing to their fellow buyers not to tamper with beans.
They also urged farmers to harvest beans at the right time.
There are about 200-300 street buyers who conduct their business in Maprik.
Gulmiya said to address the issue of quality, everyone – from the farmers to the buyers – needed to be honest.
He said the Government needed to run awareness and education on the need for maintaining quality.
Gulmiya said most farmers were genuine in their trading.
“There are many honest buyers, it is just the few who tamper with the beans,” he said.
“Farmers produce good beans, but when it comes to the street buyers, they try to add weight to them by doing all sorts of things.
“They also boil it with coffee to give it that dark, black colour.”
In Maprik last week, Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon, during the launch of the cocoa price subsidy programme, called for vanilla farmers to maintain the quality of the beans.
The minister said other provinces were also growing vanilla and they were careful about quality.
“Please look after the quality of the beans, the quality is deteriorating,” Simon said.
“I said not to buy green beans, you still buy it, you do not listen.
“Now you want the Government and MP to fix it, do not pick beans that are not ready for harvest.
“I said not to go to Indonesia (to trade vanilla for a good price), you still go there.
“Sepik, we have raised the name of vanilla and then we have destroyed it again.
“There are other places also growing vanilla and they are careful and treating it well.”
According to Department of Agriculture and Livestock, crops such as vanilla, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, pepper, citronella and nutmeg were categorised under the spice industry and were produced by smallholder farming communities in PNG.
The Spice Industry Board (SIB) is mandated to regulate, monitor and provide extension and training to develop the spice industry.
The main spice crops that were supported by the SIB throughout the years include vanilla, cardamom and chilli.
Between 2014 and 2018, a total volume of 511.3 tonnes of spice was produced with an export revenue of K511.3 million.