Business
Copra Farmers Unite To Buy Madang Mill
They want to turn it into a profitable operation
Copra farmers in Madang in Papua New Guinea have mobilised to buy a copra mill, which the government is selling to pay off debts incurred by the country’s Kokonas Indastri Koporesen.
The mill, which was shipped to Madang from Tonga in the mid 90s, has been the centre of controversy when it was put up for sale two months ago.
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Growers feared the mill would be sold to outside interests. They were vocal about the issue during a one-day forum held in Madang last month.
About 300 growers packed the Smugglers Hotel conference centre and shouted their disapproval when it was suggested the mill should be sold to the owners of another mill in the country.
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Kopra Indastri Koperesen chairman, Ken Fairweather acknowledged the growers’ disapproval and promised the mill would not be sold to outside interests.
The growers were particularly incensed when Fairweather suggested that farmers needed the skill and know-how to manage the mill.
Director of a taskforce set up by the Madang Provincial Government to buy the mill, Uron Salum said critics are saying that the small producers do not have the money nor the management skills to run the mill.
However, he said, that is an old argument. “It is an insult. It shows an extremely low opinion of us,” he said.
The taskforce and producers are confident they can raise the money to buy the mill.
Salum, who is also the Executive Director of PNG Cocoa and Coconut Extension Agency (PNGCEA), said the role of the taskforce was to oversee, assist and facilitate the sale of the copra mill to producers.
He said the taskforce has written to Kokonas Indastri Koporesen informing it of its intentions to buy the mill through a lease-buy arrangement.
He said the taskforce was confident it could help the producers raise funds to purchase the mill.
Growers in Madang have agreed to have K10 deducted from each bag of copra they sell to go towards raising the money to purchase the mill. This would work out to about K13,000 per day.
“I am more than determined as taskforce chairman to get this mill,” said Salum.
The copra industry in Papua New Guinea has suffered badly since the mid-90s due to low world market prices and mismanagement of the Copra Marketing Board, which was the industry’s sole buyer and exporter for more than 30 years.
In an attempt to address the problem and deregulate the industry, the government replaced Copra Marketing Board with Kokonas Indastri Koporesen.
Things did not improve and two months ago Kokonas Indastri Koporesen had to close all its depots throughout the country because it did not have the money to buy copra and was in debt.
Several licensed exporters have been buying from locals and exporting including the two coconut mills in the country.
One of the proposals to relieve Kokonas Indastri Koporesen of its debts was to sell the Madang mill.
However, this did not go down well with the local growers in Madang who had suffered along with the rest of the nation because of low world prices and mismanagement of Copra Marketing Board.
Throughout the past six years, Copra Marketing Board had repeatedly paid growers cheques they could not cash because there was no money.
Thousands of small growers who relied on copra for income were badly affected. Many were forced to neglect their coconut farms and turn to other crops such as vanilla and cocoa.
Farmers argue that if they own the mill, then they are guaranteed a market and the recent problems will not happen again.
“If the grassroots benefit, then the economy will be sustained,” said Dr Salam Malagun, a spokesman of the growers in the Amele area of Madang.
“Farmers must own the mill.”
Under a new arrangement two months ago, Kokonas Indastri Koporesen has allowed PNG Coconut Commodities, the company that runs the Madang Mill, to buy copra directly from growers.
