Revival of cocoa industry boosts livelihoods

The Autonomous Region of Bougainville intends to reclaim the record as the biggest producer of cocoa in Papua New Guinea this year.

Output in Bougainville is expected to exceed last year's level of 15,000 tonnes. The latest production report from agricultural authorities in June showed that 12,500 tonnes had already been produced this year.

This boost is due to a cocoa rehabilitation project supported by the Australian aid agency AusAID, the European Union, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and other organisations.

The EU supplied two million cocoa seedlings to farmers from the late 1990s and these trees are now bearing fruit.

Cocoa production throughout Papua New Guinea was hard hit by the cocoa pod borer late in 2007. Scientists are still trying to determine how the destructive pest entered the country.

Authorities immediately applied strict quarantine measures to stop it spreading and say they are having success, although authorities reported on 9 September a fresh infestation in East New Britain Province.

With world cocoa prices at a high of US$3,000 a tonne, there are strong incentives for farmers to boost production.

"My family has been very lucky that we planted our cocoa plantations as soon as the peace process started," says Ludwig Nairong, a cocoa farmer from Tinputz District, in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Photo: Eric Tapakau/IRIN

Garamut Enterprises employees check moist levels in packed cocoa bags by taking out small quantities of beans from bags

"We have been living on cocoa for cash income," Nairong said, "and we have been able to meet most of the cost of educating our children and establish a small trading store business."

Even though times are good for cocoa producers, they are calling on the government to put in place support mechanisms in the event prices should drop unexpectedly.

The government, meanwhile, has been advising farmers that while cocoa prices are high, they should save or invest their earnings wisely.

In Buka town, the main administrative centre for the region, many farm families have seen their livelihoods soar. More than US$1.8 million is circulating among 3,000 cocoa farm families, according to one bean buyer. Farmers in Buka and the greater Autonomous Region of Bougainville together may be sharing more than $3 million, according to estimates of the Agricultural Ministry in Bougainville and the Internal Revenue Commission.

Papua New Guinea, on average, produces more than 100,000 tonnes of cocoa every year, with the bulk exported to the USA, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Thailand, Germany and the UK also import about 5 percent each of PNG's cocoa production.

Until 2006, East New Britain Province was the largest producer of cocoa at 55 percent, followed by Bougainville with 19 percent, Madang 8 percent, East Sepik 6 percent, New Ireland 5 percent, West New Britain 3 percent and other smaller growing provinces accounting for 4 percent. Bougainville had traditionally been the largest cocoa producer until the late 1980s when the secessionist conflict began.

With the demise of many large plantations, smallholder growers entered the business, seeing the opportunity to earn more money than on the large plantations, which were typically owned by foreigners.

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