23 Oct 2008

PNG coffee exporter welcomes pruning initiative

4:44 pm on 23 October 2008

A coffee exporter in Papua New Guinea has praised a new initiative to prune coffee trees in the Highlands region free of charge.

The Coffee Industry Corporation has received 1.5 million US dollars from the government to prune the trees as well as plant new ones to increase the output.

The PNG Coffee Exporters general manager, John Edwards, has welcomed the initiative.

"PNG is currently suffering a bit of a production problem. The trees are very old. The pruning and husbandry of these trees could be improved. If CIC are able to send out teams to teach the pruning to the small holder, and to do some of the pruning, better still if they put in new seedlings, it can only help our production."

John Edwards says money must also be spent on improving roads, so that farmers can better transport the coffee to the ports in Lae.