FOR the first time, farmers from lower Watut in ward 25 of Wampar LLG, Huon Gulf district have sold 289 cocoa bags to Outspan Limited as a group.
FOR the first time, farmers from lower Watut in ward 25 of Wampar LLG, Huon Gulf district have sold 289 cocoa bags to Outspan Limited as a group.
Lower Watut farmer and fermentry owner Yarieng Bingiding said this in an interview after transporting 298 cocoa bags from Wampan village to Outspan buying depot in Lae yesterday.
He said cocoa was introduced to them in 1985 and they have been farming cocoa but faced struggles with having a good fermentry as well as having access to the market.
He said farmers tried their best to sell their produces and with unreliable transportation including high freight expense, farmers expectation to get sufficient income is still uncertain.
“The Cocoa Board has assisted us with information and processes to farm quality beans so with their assistance, we were able to purchase fermentry worth K6000 and K12, 000 depending on sizes preferred,” he said.
“We now have four fermentry in the village and 150 cocoa farmers are supplying their wet cocoa beans into these fermentry.”
Mr Bingiding said there is no government support from all levels of government towards cocoa farming and accessing markets in lower Watut but they don’t give up, they struggle to meet the quality and expense to sell their cocoa in Lae.
He said this is their first group sale and they are excited but their concern is the cocoa pricing which is not steady and still low.
“We pay K40 for each cocoa bag on a dugout canoe powered by a 40 horse power machine along the Watut and Markham Rivers to reach the water front before getting on a PMV truck and paying K5 per bag to reach 40 mile market.
“At 40 mile, we pay K15 for each cocoa bag to transport them to the exporter depot including our fares so I think we still make loss,” Mr Bingiding said.
He said after selling their cocoa bags for K340 or K360, what they earn is not enough to meet their daily expense.
He said they need road access so this can reduce freight or else they don’t need to change transportation along the way but travel with ease instead of traveling for days to Lae to sell their cocoa because for this trip, cocoa bags were travelling in groups since last Sunday and they reached the depot yesterday for payout.
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