Minister praises CBB containment efforts to date
BY MATTHEW VARI
Agriculture Minister Benny Allan has praised the efforts of key agencies involved in the coffee berry borer containment efforts.
He said this as yet another year nears its end since the coffee pest was officially confirmed in the country in February 2017.
He said the pest still is mainly situated in two provinces of Jiwaka and Eastern Highlands.
“Our teams from NAQIA (biosecurity authority) and CIC (Coffee Industry Corporation) have been doing roadblocks and working with coffee farmers in those two provinces and so far so good we try to minimise the spread of CBB to other provinces like Western Highlands, Chimbu, and even come down to Morobe.
“So we have contained the spread of CBB to other provinces.
“Let me thank NAQIA and CIC for excellent work on that, we are still doing roadblocks as we speak.
“We have received some funding from the National Government. Internal funding from CIC and NAQIA has been used as well,” Minister Allan said.
CIC has been the major recipient of direct support from Government, from K5 million given in 2017 and another K5 million in 2018.
CIC, however, confirmed that internal revenue funds are still being used.
NAQIA managing director Joel Alu confirmed also that while K10 million funding was given, NAQIA did not handle a single toea from the allocation over the last two years.
“But we have been able to work with CIC and maintain the roadblocks at Jiwaka and Eastern Highlands because we continue to fund with our internal revenue with K7 million spent on CBB
alone.”
According to the 2019 National Budget, CIC is set to receive direct budget support under its project of Strategic Defense of PNG Coffee Industry against the CBB, with K10 million allocated for 2019 under the public investment program.
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