Yangoru-Saussia cocoa farmers get K1mil boost

A DISTRICT in East Sepik will assist its 6,900 cocoa farmers with K1 million which is expected to generate K100 million revenue per year.
The Yangoru-Saussia development authority board resolved that K1mil would be used to increase cocoa production, improve quality and price.
The K1 million is from the K2 million Covid-19 funding allocated by Government to each district, of which 50 per cent is spent on agriculture, 25 per cent on Wash and 25 per cent on small businesses.
MP Richard Maru said the district expected an increase in cocoa production to 18,000 metric tonnes per year.
It will increase earnings from K55.5 million to more than K100 million per year.
He also said the board would assist farmers involved in vanilla business.
The district undertook an agriculture survey in its 96 wards in the past two months.
According to the study, total cocoa farmers in the district was 6,994 and 1,398 fermenteries.
In 2018, they produced 2,595 metric tonnes which generated about K15.5 million.
Last year, cocoa farmers increased their production to 9,301 metric tonnes and ended up with K55.5 million.
Maru said statistics from the PNG Cocoa Board revealed that the district accounted for 60 per cent of cocoa produced in East Sepik.
“Under the current business arrangement, foreign middlemen export companies are still the winners at the toil and sweat of our farmers. Our decisions regarding cocoa has been to cut off the ‘foreign middleman’ and transfer the saved margin to our farmers through value-add and increased prices.”