The 3rd EU-PNG Trade & Investment Conference kicked off its two-day conference at the APEC Haus yesterday attracting a good number of SME’s who gathered to showcase and market their products.
Caltep Holdings Limited, a family-owned business from the Western Highlands Province showed off their locally made 100% organic “Grow Hariap Fertilizer.”
Sales and Distribution Team Leader Judy Tep said, it took her father more than 10 years to come up with the final product which is now locally manufactured and distributed to all Brian Bell Home Center outlets in PNG.
“There were a lot of trial & errors and when the Pacific Adventist University’s Farm got us on board to do testing on their farm, it was a success. From then on, we went commercial and are currently distributing our products to all Brian Bell outlets throughout the country”.
This is the first locally owned and 100% organic fertilizer produced in the country.
Tep said the locally made fertilizer can be used on cash crops, flowers and veggies with no side effects.
The fertilizer itself is non-toxic and is not harmful to both plants and humans when used.
It is made from known highly nutritive traditional plants found in PNG and culturally used by Papua New Guineans in the past which are now packed into liquid fertilizer form ready for plants to feed on directly.
“Plants directly absorb the fertilizer through their leaves and roots for quick action and has a dual action mode which makes the plants grow faster and produces high yields.”
The fertilizer also improves the soil health by increasing soil micro-organism activity, and basically puts micro-nutrients back into the soil & increases soil fertility for plants to grow successfully.
“This allows continued use of limited land and sustains plant growth and production,” said Tep.
As a local SME, they are happy and grateful to Brian Bell for taking them on board and supporting them to distribute their products.
They have big plans ahead are looking forward to expand on their product and maybe export someday, but for now, they are taking one-step at a time.
“I’d like to thank the European Union for this exposure and providing a venue for us to market our SME’s and hopefully pick up some good contacts here and build on from there,” said Tep.