PNG COCOA BOARD TARGET K2 BILLION

BY WASITA ROYAL in Kokopo

WITH the recent swearing in of the new Board of Directors for the Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea (CBPNG), the board is now tasked to drive an increase export earning this year and solidify cocoa’s position as top national cash crop.

CEO Jesse Anjen during the swearing in ceremony last week set a bold financial target, announcing a goal to increase foreign exchange earnings to 2 billion kina this year, a substantial rise from the 1.3 billion kina earned last year.

Mr Anjen says, with the Board now fully in place, its primary mandate is to provide the strategic direction necessary to transform the cocoa industry.

“We want to be the number one cash crop in this country,” CEO Anjen emphasised, portraying the Board’s mission as central to achieving the government’s national economic objectives.

This is a public commitment to agricultural development and having ambitious targets set with renewed sense of purpose for the new CBPNG Board, poised to guide Papua New Guinea’s cocoa sector into its next and more profitable and transformative phase.

This move had aligned itself with the government’s broader strategy of appointing experienced leadership to key economic institutions.

The ceremony was presided over by Senior Magistrate Leonard Mesmin who formally concluded the statutory processes that is required to fully constitute the Board.