About 300 Cocoa Farmers in the Huon Gulf District of the Morobe Province sold an estimated 2000 plus bags of dried cocoa beans, generating K8 million in total, in the first quarter of 2023 alone.
The Babuaf cocoa farmers’ cooperative is a leading farmers’ group based in Wames project site in the Lower Watut area in Wampar local level government (LLG) in Huon Gulf, Morobe.
The Cooperative is being assisted by Chepan Yaling, a field officer and veteran cocoa breeder with over 15 years of experience in the industry.
Chepan is ensuring that the farmers affiliated to the cooperative were captured under relevant training in cocoa husbandry practices.
“Cocoa production has taken a flourishing turn and with new direction and initiatives through the National Volunteer Services (NVS) has also contributed to a substantial increase in cash flow within the communities.”
Chapan has also trained under the leadership of Joel Efron, an Israeli who is considered one of the world’s imminent plant breeders.
“The purpose of this project is to produce a quality cash crop that can sustain the lives of the Babuaf communities as a pioneer project and to bring this knowledge to assist others in similar rural settings.”
Chepan, together with volunteers Watson Tilam and Daniel Aba are working with established farmers in the area and are implementing cocoa rehabilitation as well as other farming methods to produce quality cocoa in large volumes.
“Cocoa in the area is of good quality and I am happy that the farmers have been working well with us which has resulted in a positive outcome from which they have benefited.”
All these efforts are being done to produce world-class cocoa representing Morobe and Papua New Guinea as a whole.
They are yet to go into downstream processing, but the farmers are confident that they can be able to meet the challenge and eventually set up a chocolate factory in the area.
The future sees them introducing an end product to the market that is 100 percent locally grown cocoa and will be appropriately called Babuaf Chocolate.
The cooperative is now planning to host a Babuaf cultural show in Lae in the month of July to showcase its end product, which is chocolate.