A Solomon Islands coffee producer is on track to double its annual production with assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
Varivao Holdings is among 44 Pacific enterprises receiving support under the Increasing Agricultural Commodity Trade project and one of only three in Solomon Islands.
The project's export production officer says the business applied for 27,000 US dollars' worth of funding to buy hulling, roasting and grinding equipment in 2011.
Sanford Smith says back then Varivao Holdings was processing about two tons of coffee a year.
"When we bought that for them they were able to process a higher amount of kilos of coffee in a week. Now they expect to produce around 5.5 tons of coffee this year and hopefully next year we will get this up to 10,000 kilos."
But Sanford Smith says that will only come about if a production programme the government is working on with Varivao Holdings actually takes place.
