BY TONY IROGA
A copra farmer from Sandfly, Ngella, in Central Province, has praised the Commodities Export Marketing Authority (CEMA) for improving the livelihoods of rural farmers through its village-based copra buying programme.
John Steel said the authority’s decision to purchase copra directly from villages at $4 per kilogramme has made a significant difference for farming families.
“Even though the copra price has dropped, CEMA continues to buy our copra at $4 per kg and regularly updates us on any changes in price. We are grateful for their support,” Mr Steel said.
He said copra remains the main source of income for many families in his community, helping them meet everyday household expenses, including food, school fees and other family needs.
However, he said one of the biggest challenges farmers face is the lack of transport, particularly canoes, to deliver copra to buying centres.
“Many of us do not have canoes to transport our copra. CEMA comes to our community, collects our copra and saves us from paying expensive transport costs,” he said.
He said selling copra from the village is more affordable than travelling to Honiara because farmers receive the same buying price without spending money on fuel and transport.
“When we take copra to Honiara, we spend so much on fuel and other costs that we return home with very little money. CEMA buying from our homes helps us save more of our earnings,” he said.
He added that transporting copra by boat to Honiara can require up to 20 gallons of fuel, making it an expensive exercise for rural farmers.
Steel said CEMA is the first copra buyer to travel to village communities to purchase copra directly from farmers.
“In the past, no copra exporter came to our villages to buy our copra. CEMA is the first buyer to come directly to our community, and we really appreciate that,” he said.
He thanks CEMA for its continued support and appeals to the authority to assist farmers with copra production equipment.
“We hope CEMA can also help us with copra dryers, wire nets, drums and other materials needed to build copra houses so we can improve the quality and quantity of our copra production,” he said.
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