With good roads, anything is possible. Connecting farmers to markets has been a key focus for the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership road maintenance program, which is delivered through the PNG Department of Works.
A newly awarded reseal project valued at PGK9.3m supported by the PNG-Australia Partnership will begin on 26 kilometres of the New Britain Highway from Kokopo to Bitagunan in January 2021. This will greatly improve access to markets, especially for cocoa farmers in the province.
Communities in the Gazelle District are reporting an annual increase in cocoa production, bringing new and exciting opportunities to farmers in the area and drawing attention to the importance of road maintenance projects for market access across the country.
Moveh Apelis has farmed cocoa in East New Britain for the last 45 years. Since 1979 he’s been formally engaged in the cocoa industry in a number of government-funded programs, NGOs and the private sector. He is now supporting 1,000 local cocoa growers as the Lead Farmer with the Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP).
Moveh has seen a distinct increase in cocoa production in the last five years, due largely to support for farmers from the World Bank’s PPAP.
“At Kerevat alone, in 2016, Agmark recorded 6000 bags of cocoa. In 2017, it jumped to 9,000 bags and from 2018 it jumped up to 20,000 bags,” Moveh said, reciting the numbers enthusiastically.
He predicts that in 2019 and 2020, the cocoa production in Kerevat has jumped from 20,000 bags to 30,000 or 40,000 bags, translating to 2,500 tonnes.
With increasing production, improving access to market is essential.
“If farmers are travelling on good roads, it should reduce the cost of transportation and support us to get a cleaner product to the market,” says Moveh.
“But the high cost of transporting cocoa to market eats into income for farmers in Gazelle District.”
There’s a clear sense of preparing for the future in the district and Moveh’s outlook is positive and ambitious.
“In the near future, maybe five or six years’ time, my prediction is we will have a chocolate factory built in East New Britain, and we will have our own product here; chocolate or peanut chocolate or whatever can be made out of chocolate.”
When roads are in good condition, vehicles need fewer repairs and cartage costs are reduced.