Bright prospects for two PNG agricultural sectors

Prospects are looking up for two of PNG’s agricultural sectors. Gabriella Munoz and Kevin McQuillan report.

We believe that vanilla can continue to support farmers for a long time to come.

Papua New Guinea company Native Vanilla, under the watchful eye of chief executive officer and founder Dan Edmiston, has had exponential growth recently because of world demand for topquality vanilla.

Edmiston’s family moved to East Sepik Province in 1983. As a child, he paddled in his dugout canoe, swam in the Karawari

River, ate sak-sak and spent time with his friends while his father, an anthropologist and linguist, conducted research. But when the project his father was working on ended, they moved back to the US.

In 2014, however, Edmiston went back to PNG and met with his childhood friends, who were growing vanilla. They knew they weren’t receiving competitive or fair prices, and asked Edmiston for help.

“I couldn’t wait to get started and founded Native Vanilla,” he says.

The company works with East Sepik villages to establish cooperatives run by local farmers. The cooperative, says Edmiston, enables Native Vanilla to provide training and resources to the farmers.

Edmiston and his team do roadshows and speak with farmers to understand their needs, and together try to find solutions.

Native Vanilla supports about 2000 farmers in East Sepik and has expanded to Western Province, where 100 vanilla growers were paid recently for the first time.

“Agriculture is their livelihood, and vanilla supports their families, schooling and medical needs. They want to make sure they are getting a fair price and want to know what they can do to achieve that,” he says.

Through Native Vanilla, PNG farmers involved in the project are getting training to achieve higher and more consistent quality. Edmiston believes that the company can help to improve the quality of vanilla and grow the demand for PNG vanilla.

Native Vanilla, which is exporting around eight to nine tonnes of vanilla a year, is up against big global exporters that have backing from their governments. Despite the challenge, the company has grown about 40 per cent in one year and is currently exporting Papuan vanilla to the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Italy and South Africa.

“We exclusively sell PNG vanilla and have created our own PNG branded beans that we export. There is more demand than supply, so we believe that vanilla can continue to support farmers for a long time to come.”

Meanwhile, Paradise Spices is back in the hands of GTM Distributors’ general manager Max Puritau, who is planning more products, staff and investment.

Puritau sold Paradise Spices in 2013 to Paradise Foods, and joined Rhicornese Holdings, a group of companies delivering services to rural and remote PNG. In October, Rhicornese acquired Paradise Spices for PGK180,000. The company now operates under a new brand called Besti.

While general manager of Rhicornese’s subsidiary company GTM Distributors, Puritau has dealt in spices and vanilla products, coffee, cocoa and water. Turnover is PGK5 million per annum.

“Our plans (for Paradise Spices) for next year will see more investment in machinery to improve the current supply chain.” Puritau says the company will also be working on marketing and there will be new products on the shelves.