The Waigani Central Stop N Shop and the CPL Group Ltd yesterday launched the Santana Potatoes of Simbu with Police Minister and Member for Kundiawa Gembogl, Chimbu Province William Onglo.
Founder and Chairman of CPL Group, Mahesh Patel said that it has been CPL and Stop N Shop’s greatest pleasure in launching fresh produce from local farmers and having launched the Gembogl onions last year it is only fitting to continue this wonderful collaboration by launching Simbu Santana Potatoes.
“These produce are amazing and home grown, but all credit must go to the Minister. In my 30 years in Papua New Guinea, I have seen many leaders, but you need a leader that rolls up his sleeves and actually works with the farmers because the farmers alone can’t do it. We need leaders like Minister Onglo who actually work with them to get the produce together. So thank you very much Minister,” said Mahesh Patel.
He added, “The New Year looks promising and hopefully we keep growing, to finding things not only in Simbu Province but around the country because that’s in the DNA of SNS and CPL.”
Minister Onglo thanked CPL and SNS Waigani for their continued support of local farmers and mentioned during his speech that in shops at least 80% of the produce brought in are imported, whereas local farmers make up for around 20% of the fresh garden produce shelved in supermarkets.
“We should really be working with our own farmers by organizing course groups, training them, setting them up properly, producing our own seedlings and bringing consistency and quality. However, bringing produce out from districts then all the way into the city has been a big challenge for us.”
The potatoes are bought from all farmers in districts into a cold supply chain, which is a chiller refrigeration system. They travel down to Lae where they are frozen and then prepped for shipping. Usually on weekends, seven containers are shipped into Port Moresby.
CPL CEO Navin Raju said that the Simbu Santana potatoes is badged to have better quality than some that are imported. He encouraged the people of Simbu and the country to support farmers by buying these high quality potatoes.
“Our buying team are doing well to get produce from our local suppliers and our plans for next year is to go to many different regions of PNG and get the produce into Moresby to get a taste of home,” said Navin.
CPL Projects General Manager, Ajay Patel said that it has been a long time coming. In his visit up in the province he was greeted by 30,000 farmers where he was presented with the opportunity to remind them that CPL and SNS were there for quality and consistency.
Ajay said that CPL and SNS were in it for the long haul and as long as supply chain is in the right, they would continue to buy and make things work for PNG farmers.
“To the farmers, we are here for you. Give us quality, give us consistency and we’re not going to go anywhere.”
