Networking boosts coffee

Source: 

The National,Tuesday 15th of January, 2013

THREE highlands-based coffee cooperatives are seeing more benefits from their ties with an international coffee association. More than 1,000 farmers under the Apo, Angra and Kange AAK) Coffee Cooperative Societies based in Eastern Highlands, Chimbu, Jiwaka and Western Highlands are getting good prices and will soon venture into a housing project with the purchase of two sawmills to process their timber. The cooperatives recently forged an alliance with the Switzerland-based 4C Association with assistance from Nestle and VolCafé, the parent company of PNG Coffee Exports. The 4C Association is the platform that brings together stakeholders in the coffee sector to address sustainability issues. To date, 250 members worldwide have joined the 4C platform. Cooperative coordinator Brian Kuglame said overseas partners also aim  to introduce more social and economic schemes like central wet coffee mills and help farmers in marketing and transport. “We see that the social and economic plans of our international partners are viable to assist our farmers’ needs and it is a good opportunity that they would not let go,” he said. Kuglame said the cooperatives were a role model for other farmer-based coffee cooperatives to link up with the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) and other coffee companies and organizations to access available services and opportunities. He said all credit for the success of the AAK Cooperatives should go to CIC for successfully implementing their eight point plan introduced in 2002 on grower-owned marketing. “CIC grower-owned marketing policy is a practical programme to empower and benefit disadvantaged farmers … AAK  Cooperatives has made it a reality to showcase that mobilizing growers to productivity is the way forward,” Kuglame said. Through the eight point plan, the CIC is promoting such grower-owned group marketing to achieve higher coffee quality, volume, income and other related incentives, including addressing labor issues.