PNG Cocoa Processing Gets Major Boost As Queen Emma Factory Expands

 PNG Cocoa Processing Gets Major Boost As Queen Emma Factory Expands/ Photo supplied

Papua New Guinea’s efforts to retain more of the value generated from its cocoa industry have received a major boost with the expansion of the Queen Emma Chocolate Factory in Port Moresby.

Prime Minister James Marape opened the upgraded facility this week, describing the K18.6 million investment by 100 per cent Papua New Guinean-owned Paradise Company Limited as a practical demonstration of the Government’s push for greater downstream processing.

The expansion has lifted the factory’s chocolate production capacity from 10 tonnes to 200 tonnes a month, representing a 20-fold increase. The project received K11.5 million from the European Union through the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, implemented with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, while Paradise contributed K7.1 million.

Mr Marape said the development showed that PNG could move beyond exporting raw commodities and instead process, manufacture and market finished products from within the country. He said PNG produces some of the finest cocoa in the world, but local producers need to capture a larger share of the international chocolate market.

He said the expanded operation could require more than 2,000 tonnes of cocoa beans each year as production grows. That level of demand could provide more than K43 million in direct and reliable income for over 10,000 smallholder cocoa farming families across four provinces.

The Prime Minister said Government policies would need to link farmers in rural communities with reliable markets and the factory, while ensuring they receive fair returns. He also raised the possibility of working with Nambawan Super to develop a savings model allowing farmers to put part of their agricultural income towards retirement, potentially with Government contributions.

Paradise Foods has invested more than K200 million during the past 12 years to expand its ice cream, snack, biscuit and culinary production. The company, acquired by Nambawan Super and Comrade Trustees from Arnott’s in 2007, employs more than 1,200 people, with over 99 per cent being Papua New Guineans.

Mr Marape said local processing could increase the value of cocoa substantially, noting that raw beans sold for about K25 a kilogram could be converted into products such as cocoa butter, cocoa mass, cocoa liquor and chocolate worth about K55 to K60 a kilogram.

Paradise is also planning a larger chocolate processing facility in Lae with a proposed capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes of processed cocoa and chocolate a month. The project could eventually generate as much as K500 million in export revenue and open wider markets in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

“This is the direction Papua New Guinea must take: grow it in PNG, process it in PNG, make it in PNG and sell it to the world,” Mr Marape said.