The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation are looking to step up investments in the Highlands. Michel Kerf, the World Bank’s Country Director for PNG and the Pacific Islands, describes to Business Advantage PNG the challenges and opportunities for the region.

Michel Kerf, World Bank Country Director for PNG and the Pacific, Prime Minister James Marape and Thomas Jacobs, IFC Country Manager for PNG and the Pacific, Australia and New Zealands. Credit: IFC/World Bank

The World Bank in PNG’s Highlands region has been focusing on helping communities form partnerships to improve farming practices and access to markets, explains Michael Kerf, who is the World Bank’s Country Director for PNG and the Pacific Islands.

Kerf, Prime Minister James Marape and Thomas Jacobs, the International Finance Corporation’s Country Manager for PNG, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, undertook a week-long visit of the Highlands to assess the opportunities. Kerf notes that about 40 per cent of PNG’s population resides in the Highlands and says that the bank is focusing on boosting agriculture in the region to help sustain people’s livelihoods.

‘Women farmers in Jiwaka Province … no longer have to walk for hours carrying their drums of coffee to the nearest highway for sale.’

‘Across the nation, we have supported over 68,000 coffee and cocoa producers to increase their yields and their incomes,’ he says. ‘This is an important first step, but more is needed to build PNG’s agricultural sector. We are now looking to expand this to include other crops, such as copra and spices, as well as livestock.

‘We have also been supporting these partnerships with infrastructure, such as warehouses and feeder roads, and met with women farmers in Jiwaka Province who, with the construction of World Bank-supported roads, no longer have to walk for hours carrying their drums of coffee to the nearest highway for sale.’

Breadbasket of the country?

Hilans Fres is the largest regular supplier of fresh produce from the Western Highlands and Jiwaka Provinces. Credit: Hilans Fres

Jacobs says that the Highlands region has the potential to become the ‘breadbasket’ of the country, supplying PNG and targeting export markets.

‘One of the clear messages that we heard from the Prime Minister was the importance he places on development of agriculture for PNG’s future growth,’ says Jacobs. ‘It’s an essential part of PNG’s future growth story.

‘Part of this is helping a transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming’

‘There’s more that needs to be done to support smallholder farmers, open up access to markets and also work with the private sector.’

Key local business

Jacobs adds that the IFC, with the support of the governments of Australia and New Zealand, has worked with retailer and wholesaler Tininga Limited to conduct farm management training, educate farmers in financial literacy and set up a new system to transport the fresh produce to Port Moresby, using refrigerated containers.

Tininga’s Hilans Fres operation now ships five to six containers per week, mainly to Port Moresby. It amounts to about 160 tonnes of fresh produce per month. Jacobs says the IFC is also working with cassava farmers to help connect them to potential buyers, such as SP Brewery.

‘Part of this is helping a transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming, working with farmers to make sure they supply the required quality and volume of goods,’ says the IFC representative.

He believes there is potential to expand cassava production, because the local starch can replace imported starch. ‘We really see this as an opportunity to create a new market, giving farmers the technology and skills to expand their ability to farm cassava,’ Jacobs explains.

The quality of the produce Kerf and Jacobs saw in the Highlands demonstrates, they believe, that PNG farmers deliver high quality. The next step, they say, is to help the country produce more, reduce its reliance on imports and increase exports to nearby Asian markets.