BB GOROKA Branch

Over the years, we have seen the closure and relocation of various businesses in Goroka that used to employ many people which in turn, provided our company with it’s customer base.

This exodus, from the town with the best climate in the world, was led by Cottees, who closed their Passiona Factory due to a diminishing supply of Passion fruit. Next was the relocation to Lae of the Soft Drink and Ice Cream manufacturers, Laga Industries. 

Shortly after this, third level airline Talair closed down, retrenching some 100 pilots and 200 ancillary staff. In more recent times, the huge Collins and Leahy empire relocated their Head Office to Lae. The town’s latest closure has been PNG Motors who elected not to rebuild after the fire destroyed their Workshop and Spare Parts Department.

 Whilst all this negativity makes growth extremely difficult, Goroka now has a progressive Provincial Government led by Mal Smith-Kela. His energy and enthusiasm for the Province is contagious and everybody is striving to improve Goroka with rural roads and infrastructure being repaired after a long period of no maintenance at all.

Last year, Goroka branch joined the development throng and converted a large part of its car park into a showroom, allowing us to extend our range of stock and display it further. This has given our sales a significant boost, at a time when there’s no extra money around.

 Now, Goroka has all of its “economic eggs in one basket” and relies solely on the agriculture sector (mainly coffee) for its economy. The last 3-4 years we have seen a decline in world coffee prices, due to several world factors-Vietnam now has a Coffee Industry, injecting 10, 000, 000 bags of coffee into the world market place, and the quality of PNG Coffee has deteriorated, due to trees not being pruned and fertilized as they had been in the past.

Diseases such as Rust have not been combated as much as they should have been and crops are now suffering as a result. The road infrastructure to rural areas has deteriorated to the degree that growers (until recently), have been unable to transport, their coffee to town to sell, and buyers haven’t been able to reach them.

All Gorokans are now full of eager anticipation as many of these roads have been repaired and our “Coffee Guru’s” are telling us that 2005 is going to be a “bumper” year. Not only is the young Coffee on the trees developing into a better quality, the volume is greater and indications are that the world coffee prices will jump to the same as it was some five years ago.

All the same, our staff don’t rest on their laurels waiting for something to happen, they are actively promoting the company and its stock lines, pouncing on each and every sale opportunity. G. Little.

 By Graeme Little