Parliament was told there are about three million Papua New Guineans who produce coffee but there are no incentives for the simple farmers, a concern highlighted by the Member for Goroka, Bire Kimisopa.
It’s one the country’s biggest industry, in fact the coffee industry contributes about K520 million, one that directly benefits coffee growers in the country. But at the end of the day, simple farmers are only paid about K5 per kilo for green beans with no incentives to subsidize the cost of getting these bags to the coffee buyer in the first instance.
With all these issues at hand, the Member for Goroka enquired if the Agriculture Department had incentives in place. He asked what the government was doing to assist growers and the industry itself.
Agriculture Minister, Tommy Tomscoll said the problems faced by the Coffee Industry are the same ones faced by cocoa, and copra producers. He said inaccessibility to markets, landowner issues contributes to the problems.
The Agriculture Department is currently working on a formula to price all cash crops. This means farmers will be able to sell their cash crops using the fixed price set by the line department.
Em TV News
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