Cocoa Board Chief Sets Out National Plan to Rebuild and Transform Industry

LAE, 8 April 2025 – Papua New Guinea’s cocoa industry, one of the country’s most widely grown crops and a vital source of income for rural families, is entering a new phase of strategic transformation. The Cocoa Board of PNG, under the leadership of its Chief Executive Officer Jesse Anjen, has unveiled a bold national plan to expand cocoa production, improve quality, foster local processing, and elevate the industry to its rightful place as a key economic driver.

At the heart of this strategy is a commitment to deliver more than 13 million cocoa seedlings across the country by 2027—laying the foundation for a new generation of cocoa production and an inclusive model of rural growth. “Seedlings are not just planting material,” Anjen said during his presentation at the National Agriculture Industry Public-Private Sector Partnership Conference in Lae. “They represent jobs, incomes, futures. Cocoa does not fall from the sky. It grows from a seed, and that seed must be nurtured, funded and delivered.”

The urgency of the Cocoa Board’s mission was made clear from the outset. Despite limited resources and structural constraints, the cocoa sector contributed K1.2 billion in export revenue last year. A total of 42,000 tonnes of cocoa were produced in 2024, of which 41,000 tonnes were exported—primarily to bulk markets in Asia. The bulk of this production came not from commercial plantations but from smallholder farmers, who now form the backbone of a sector once dominated by estates.

“This is a billion-kina industry,” Anjen said. “But it’s being run with fragmented policies, ad hoc funding, and an outdated legislative framework. We must reform it if we want to unlock its full potential for our people and our economy.”

He described the reality facing the Cocoa Board: a sector regulated by laws dating back to 1981, with no formal review of its enabling Act since 1991. For years, the Board operated without a corporate plan or medium-term development strategy. When the Cocoa and Coconut Institute was dissolved in 2014, the Cocoa Board absorbed its research and extension responsibilities, but without receiving the budget that once funded those critical functions.

“What we inherited was responsibility without resourcing,” he said. “We now run research stations, breeding programmes and field extension in more than 20 provinces, but most of our staff are not on government payroll. We fund them from donor projects, district grants, or internally through programme budgets. It’s patchwork survival—but it’s not sustainable.”

To address this, Anjen said the Board has aligned its operations with the Medium-Term Development Plan IV (MTDP IV) and launched a series of interlinked programmes, each targeting a core priority: seedling supply, freight access, research and development, nursery expansion, downstream processing, and rural infrastructure, including roads and bridges to connect cocoa-producing communities to markets.

Among the most pressing challenges is access to planting materials. The Cocoa Board estimates demand for cocoa seedlings now exceeds one million in some provinces alone, particularly in the Southern and Islands regions. To meet this need, the Board is decentralising seed production, currently concentrated in East New Britain, by establishing regional seed gardens supervised by cocoa breeders. These facilities are being planned in the Highlands, Southern, Momase and Islands regions, in partnership with local governments and development partners.

“This is a national crop now,” Anjen said. “Cocoa is being planted in the highlands of Chimbu, the savannahs of Gulf, the mountains of Hela. But our seed supply chain is still centralised. That’s a mismatch we must correct.”

Research, he said, must also be tailored to diverse agro-ecological zones. PNG’s current cocoa clones were developed for lowland conditions but are now being planted in unfamiliar environments. Without proper genotype-by-environment testing, productivity and disease resistance may vary dramatically, and farmers are left to rely on guesswork. Anjen called for renewed investment in adaptive research, soil trials, and long-term varietal selection, with new cocoa research centres planned as part of the Board’s K10 million investment package for 2025.

The Board’s vision goes well beyond production. Anjen made a strong case for domestic downstream processing and the promotion of value-added cocoa products. Although the government’s target of 18 major processing facilities by 2027 may be ambitious, Anjen said smaller-scale initiatives involving youth groups, women’s cooperatives and SMEs could deliver local impact more quickly.

“We should not be exporting raw beans while importing chocolate,” he said. “We need village-level processing—chocolate-making, cocoa powder, nibs, even soap and cosmetics. Let’s add value here at home and build a market for PNG-branded cocoa products.”

To this end, the Board is pursuing new partnerships. Since 2023, 19 Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with districts, provincial governments, NGOs, donors and private companies. An additional 32 are under development, with a goal of signing most by mid-2025. These include a notable MoU with Ramu Nickel, which will supply 100,000 seedlings to farmers along its mine corridor, and agreements with airlines and shipping companies to support cocoa freight from remote areas.

Freight, Anjen stressed, remains a major bottleneck. “We can’t talk about market access if we can’t even move the cocoa,” he said. “In Garaina, farmers are stranded after we lost our aircraft through North Coast Aviation. In other areas, there are no roads, no jetties. That’s the reality we face.”

The Cocoa Board is also ramping up its quality control systems. With increasing international demand, there are concerns about declining post-harvest standards. Farmers under pressure to sell are cutting corners—skipping fermentation or drying improperly. The Board is training certified quality assessors and licensing fermentaries to ensure PNG cocoa meets the standards required for premium and specialty markets, including Europe.

“Quality and traceability are not optional,” Anjen said. “If we want to enter the European Union market, we must be able to verify our product from tree to export. That includes sustainability, ethical sourcing, and climate compliance. We’re working now to prepare the industry for that future.”

The Board is also exploring research partnerships in areas such as carbon sequestration and climate resilience. Technologies such as sterile insect release, developed with international agencies, are being considered to control cocoa pod borer and other pests. “Innovation is essential,” he said. “We can’t grow more cocoa with yesterday’s tools.”

Looking ahead, the Cocoa Board plans to expand its physical presence into under-served provinces, including Gulf, Jiwaka, Milne Bay and Western. New regional offices have already been opened in Port Moresby and Kokopo, serving the Southern and Islands regions respectively. The Board currently operates export control from 11 major ports and five smaller ones, reflecting the decentralised nature of PNG’s cocoa trade.

As his presentation drew to a close, Anjen was resolute in his call to action. “This industry is ready,” he said. “The farmers are ready. The markets are ready. All we need is the policy, the funding, and the partnerships to make it happen.”

The room responded with applause—but also with a sense of shared responsibility. Cocoa is back on the national agenda, and with the right support, it may yet become one of Papua New Guinea’s greatest development success stories.