The autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville is establishing a joint venture with a Chinese company to eliminate middle men who it says pay low prices and make huge profits out of its agricultural exports.
The president John Momis says they want to empower the people and have collaborated with a Chinese business which'll buy the province's copra and cocoa and other goods.
He says the joint venture will ensure better returns and allow the province to access technology so it can properly prepare the foods for export.
And Mr Momis says they'll also import a range of products direct from China.
"Prepared housing, household goods, clothing, radios, mobile phones, lap tops - all the things that we buy from Rabaul wholesale businesses, Lae and Port Moresby, which are astronomically high. We know for a fact - I was in China - and things were very cheap there. We can get them straight from the factories."
