Media release
24 February 2010
For immediate release
Australia supports PNG coffee industry
Australia’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea (PNG), Mr Ian Kemish AM, today launched a four-year coffee project in Goroka, which aims for a ten per cent increase in coffee productivity for smallholder farmers in the Eastern Highlands.
Coffee is the main source of household income for many Highland communities, with over 85 percent of Papua New Guinea’s coffee produced by smallholders as part of their food gardens and or as a cash crop.
Mr Kemish said that the smallholder Highland coffee farmers were very important to the coffee industry, and noted that the contribution of the coffee industry to PNG’s economy would be strengthened through this new initiative.
“The project will assist coffee growers by targeting extension strategies to different groups of farmers and their families, particularly women and youth, on aspects such as soil improvement and better use of labour,” Mr Kemish said.
The project is being funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and is part of a suite of ACIAR-funded coffee projects across PNG.
“The outcomes of this ACIAR project will provide economic, social and environmental benefits to the smallholders, and will also inform other coffee-related projects in PNG, such as those funded by the World Bank,” Mr Kemish said.
Mr Kemish thanked the Coffee Industry Cooperation, the National Agricultural Research Institute, and ACIAR for their long-term partnership and work supporting the coffee industry.