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Covid Awareness | PNG | Video

 When the pandemic reached PNG, MDF’s immediate response was to gather market intelligence from its extensive networks in the agriculture sector. MDF saw that accurate information about COVID-19 was not reaching rural people. 

To help farmers understand more about COVID-19 and how to protect themselves while continuing to safely farm and sell their produce, MDF PNG partnered with agribusiness Outspan Limited to launch an awareness campaign…

Click on the link below to watch the COVID-19 Awareness in PNG video and see how MDF is assisting local farmers in PNG show resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Guinea Fruits

Improving honey production for farmers in the Eastern Highlands

MDF’s support to New Guinea Fruit has improved honey farmers’ capacity to produce and supply more honey.

New Guinea Fruits (NGF) is a leading producer of PNG honey based in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, where over 90% of the country’s honey is produced. It buys honey from local farmers, processes it and packages it under its “Highlands Honey” brand.

Initially focused on fruit-based products such as jams and wines, after 10 years of producing honey on a small scale, NGF saw the potential increase domestic honey production to compete with the rising supply of imported honey.

When MDF partnered with NGF in 2016 the company was producing about 10 MT of honey annually. In 2017, this increased to 20 MT and in 2018 it sourced over 48 MT from local farmers.

Beekeeping is not a traditional farming practice in PNG. In addition to the need for technical training in bee husbandry, including pest and disease management, almost all inputs are still imported. Access to basic items such as hives and veils is therefore not only difficult but beyond the budget of an average village farmer.

As a result, domestic honey production in PNG has remained dormant for the last three decades, while low priced imported honey has dominated the market.

To compete with imported honey, NGF had to supply more honey at a lower cost. Based on their model of working with local beekeepers, this required providing farmers with training on best practices, including pest and disease management, facilitating access to affordable inputs and increasing the number of farmers supplying honey.

In 2016, MDF partnered with NGF to help address some of these challenges. A bee expert was hired to boost the knowledge and skills of beekeepers, and a Beekeeping Guide and videos were produced. These are used to enhance training and promote beekeeping as a viable second income source to new farmers, and market NGF’s Highlands Honey brand to consumers.

NGF then initiated a credit facility through its input supply shop for low value items. With MDF’s support, the business also purchased wax molding equipment to produce wax locally.

In 2018, NGF started to buy more honey than it could process and distribute to its largest market, Port Moresby. Through its own initiative the company established a storage facility and hired additional sales staff there.

Click on the button below to download the full Stories of Significant Change: New Guinea Fruits article.

NKW Fresh

Building Farmer’s Fresh Produce Capacity!

MDF’s support to NKW Fresh enabled the company to maintain consistency in supply volumes and quality to meet market needs.

NKW Fresh is a fresh produce company based in Wau, Morobe Province. The company sources fresh produce from local smallholder farmers and supplies to catering companies in mining camps in Morobe and retail supermarkets in Lae, Kokopo and Port Moresby. It has two buying depots located in Lae and Wau.

Temperate climate produce such as broccoli, cauliflower and herbs are still imported today despite PNG’s capacity to grow many of these crops. This is largely due to poor connectivity and inefficiencies in the fresh produce supply chain.

NKW Fresh has had a few challenges to deal with, ranging from lack of infrastructure and limited availability to access to appropriate agricultural inputs. Poor infrastructure makes connections to markets difficult and costly, and the lack of farmer knowledge means that there are issues around crop planning, demand forecasting, high wastage, consistency of supply volumes, and quality of the fresh produce.

Through the partnership with MDF, NKW Fresh recruited Field Extension Officers (FEOs) to educate farmers on better crop planning and cultivation practices. There was a focus also on strengthening the supply chain with the development of a farmer database that helped to identify and track farmers’ production. Additionally, a mobile crop management software was installed and used by FEOs to collect data.

Click on the button below to download Stories of Significant Change: NKW Fresh.

 Consita the Coffee Taster

The PNG Post follows the story of an Monpi Coffee Export Limited coffee taster..

?All we have to do is look past our disabilities and try to take the plunge, find something we?re good at. For me it is tasting coffee and i want to be the best cupper one day? says Consita.

Partially blind, Consita has been using her enhanced sense of taste and smell to grade coffee as a taster for Monpi Coffee Export Limited (MCEL) since 2016.

As part of her job, Consita tastes 100 cups of coffee per day and is working towards becoming its champion cupper.

Click on the button below to read the entire PNG Post article Consita the coffee taster.

Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea

Constraints Addressed included Limited access to cost saving inputs, Limited access to information and production know-how, Limited access to information on post-harvest and quality control and Lack of access to formal markets.

Interventions in Fresh Produce, Inputs, Export Commodities, Niche Products, Emerging Crops, Women’s Economic Empowerment.

Partnerships with Fresh Produce Wholesaler NKW Fresh, Coffee Quality Control Service Provider Sustainable Management Services (SMS) and Agmark, Input Suppliers Central Highlands Feed Mills Ltd (CHFML), Processors New Guinea Fruits.

Key Results

SMS – Coffee A total of 2000 farmers from its existing supply chain and an additional 1000 farmers will be trained and certified over a period of three years.

Central Highlands Feed Mills Ltd (CHFML) – Feed 15 Demonstration units produced good growth results for pigs fed with local starch ingredients and feed concentrate, highlighting the relevance for concentrate as a low-cost input into pig rearing in rural areas.

NGF – Honey – There was an increase of 114 beekeepers between 2016 & 2018 who were supplying raw honey to the company. The volume of raw honey sourced from bee-keepers increased from 9.7 MT in 2016 to 38.0 MT in 2018.

NKW Fresh Produce – NKW has hired three more Field Extension Officers, thus increasing their extension team to seven staff. Last year NKW expanded to new sourcing areas reaching 322 farmers.

Click on the button below to download the full Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea report.

Sustainable Management Services

Improving coffee quality and achieving certification

MDF’s support to SMS will enable smallholder coffee farmers to be trained and certified in producing quality coffee.

Part of the global ECOM Group, Sustainable Management Services (SMS) PNG serves a worldwide network of one million farmers with the mission to improve their economic, social, environmental, and health conditions. It does this by building and managing transparent supply chains to improve yields and quality, building income for farmers.

Together with its export partner Monpi Coffee Exports (MCEL), SMS currently connects over 3,000 farmers to high grade coffee markets through international roasters such as Starbucks, Nestle and Kraft.

The global coffee market has grown by over 50% since the 1990’s1, with global specialty coffee shops forecast to grow at a CAGR of 10% between 2017 and 20212. The potential exists to introduce PNG as a specialty origin to younger professionals and consumers3. This trend is expected to rise both in traditional European and North American markets but also in emerging markets such as China and India with a growing middle class.

Approximately 85% of PNG coffee is produced by smallholder farmers. Fluctuating coffee prices, poor knowledge of how to produce high-yielding, quality coffee and lack of access to coffee markets discourage farmers, who resort to other quick income alternatives if the coffee price is not right. As a result, PNG coffee production has stagnated over the last decade.

In partnership with MDF, SMS has begun to train and certify an additional 1,000 smallholder farmers, enabling the export of 3,000 more bags of coffee in 2019 and capturing a growing global market for sustainably produced certified and/or specialty coffee from Papua New Guinea.

Click on the button below to download the Stories of Significant Change: Sustainable Management Services.

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