Autonomous Region of Bougainville is the biggest cocoa exporter for PNG amassing a total of 150,000 tons per year with revenues of more than K150 million annually.
They have taken over East New Britain as the major producer of cocoa in the country.
This was revealed during the opening of the 5th Bougainville Chocolate Festival at Hutjena Field yesterday by acting President Patrick Nisira.
“It shows the resilience and potential of Bougainvilleans to revive the region’s economy,” he said.
We have put the region on the map as the number one producer of cocoa in PNG.
We have regained that number one position that we used to be rated as prior to the crisis.
It shows that we, Bougainvilleans, are hard workers.
“Bougainville has immensely contributed to the economic of PNG from cocoa and the Bougainville Copper Mine prior to the crisis,” said Mr Nisira.
At the same time, he thanked all those who were involved in reviving the cocoa sector in the region, especially, the UN cocoa programs, Australian Government, New Zealand Government including the farmers and companies involved in cocoa sector.
He also mentioned in his address that the region will move towards downstream processing of cocoa powder and other cocoa products and export out.
“For so long we have been mere commodity producers for large corporations or businesses overseas where they come buy our cocoa and resell back to us at high prices, despite being the original producers of the raw material.
The Bougainville Chocolate Festival will be held for three days at the Hutjena oval where farmers, SMEs and businesses to interact and share ideas on improving cocoa quality in the region.
