Png Puts Spice Into Its Exports

By Maclaren Hiari

Papua New Guinea’s first commercial cardamon plantation, established in the virgin jungle area on the Managalase plateau of the Northern Province five years ago, has come into full production this year. Cardamon is a spice originally grown only in East India.

Its availability in Papua New Guinea has depended largely on the whims of im porters and on demand it is not one of the more common spices. But a pioneering venture in the Northern Province is already out to change all this.

The members of the Breay family, who are behind the scheme, began their careers in cardamon in India and have already proved the commercial potential for the product in Papua New Guinea. This pioneering venture, the Boikik Plantation, established at Afore in 1971, is managed by Cardamon Traders, a partnership of members of the Breay family.

Guy and Jan Breay manage the planta tion while Guy’s father, Geoff Breay, lives in Lae with his wife Bunty and frequently commutes to Karimui in the Chimbu Province where the partnership has a 10acre trial plot of cardamon.

Geoff Breay handles the marketing and technical details of the operation. He is an authority on cardamon, having spent 35 successful years in South India producing it, and has already proved the commercial possibilities for it in Papua New Guinea.

“It did not take me long to discover from the air that there were many areas in which cardamon might be grown and so to initiate the investigations I set up a nursery at Mount Hagen from seeds I obtained from India”, Mr Breay said.

Plants were transferred by air from Mt Hagen to Karimui and the first crops were planted in the Karimui area in September and October, 1970.

The cardamon comes from many species of wild gingers which spread around Papua New Guinea but this particular cardamon is the Ellecteria Cardamon.

Mr Breay said the first sales from crops obtained at Karimui were mainly Mysor variety and 6301 b of cardamon was sold to a Fiji firm in October, 1973. Before the first sale samples were sent to buyers in various parts of the world, who all spoke highly of the size of the pods and the quali ty of the seeds inside the pods.

A lot of back-breaking work has gone into establishing the plantation both for Guy and his Papua New Guinean employees. Dense jungle was cleared for the house and his employees' village, Boikik village. One of the essentials for the venture was a road to Afore, the main

patrol post in the Managalase. About 10 kilometres was hacked out of the bush.

The road is passable by tractor and Land rover at the moment but in the wet season only a trail bike is able to get through.

Cardamon Traders are marketing their cardamon overseas by flying it to Oro Bay or Port Moresby from Boikik and then by ship to overseas ports.

India is a large consumer of cardamon.

There, it is used in curries and it is also chewed with betel nut. In India and Middle East it is widely known as an aphrodisiac.

It is used in cooking in many other coun tries as a general aromatic flavouring agent, particularly in Scandinavia, Japan and Fiji.

Mr Breay said that the introduction of

cardamon to this country should be a great interest especially as it was extremely suitable as a peasant farming crop.

“I am convinced that the soil, climate and elevation and forest are very suitable to the growing of cardamons in this coun try, and I am prepared to put my ex perience in this field to native growers and to advise and assist them in the establish ment of the cultivation of cardamon”, he said.

Mr Breay said that since Cardamon Traders started exporting in October, 1973, they had now exported, up to January this year, 12,000 kilograms to Fi

ji, Japan, United Kingdom, Singapore,

Australia and New Zealand, but Fiji is the main market catering mainly for the In dian population there.