To fulfill government’s vision to subsidize freight costs for farmers in the remote areas in the country, various agencies received funding support from Coffee Minister earlier this week in Mt Hagen.
The Coffee Minister Joe Kuli presented K450, 000 as freight subsidy support to various agencies, among them were Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) who received K200, 000 and Consort Shipping Express presented with K80, 000 to help Coffee farmers in the rural areas freight their produce to the market.
During the cheque presentation at the MAF headquarters in Mt Hagen, Minister Kuli thanked MAF staff and management for their services and contribution to the development of this country.
“Where there are no roads and bridges, MAF have been there in the forefront to provide the much needed service. You have been faithfully providing this service to our country and I commend you for that. I am here today to deliver the freight subsidy support, and this will continue into next year and onwards. After next month, we will look at price, then replanting and rehabilitation of run-down plantations,” Minister Kuli said.
The Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) Chief Executive Officer Charles Dambui said, “CIC has a long-standing partnership with MAF and I thank them for being with the coffee industry for a very long time.”
He said with the government’s interest now to partner with airline freighters to bring in Coffee from remote areas, it’s not a mistake to select MAF as it has been in the country for a long time and reaching out to the most remote areas.
The MAF Country Director Todd Aebischer thanked the government for the support saying, the airline has truly served the remote communities and it was encouraging to see the government investing in this kind of opportunity to help move produce to the markets.
“This is not just about putting finances in people’s hands, that is just a small piece but it is helping families with education, improving standards of living, and helping them to build their communities,” Aebischer said.
The MAF country director said 86.6% of people in PNG live in rural communities and with urbanization rate of 2.5% per year, it is going to remain rural for a very long time.
“We have a very synergistic partnership with the other operators providing support with Niugini Aviation and the North Coast and we want to continue to work in that capacity. You have our pledge that those funds will be used exactly as you have requested. We keep very close accounting and reporting and at any point in time we will be happy to show you which communities were impacted by those subsidy funds,” Aebischer said.
