Kamapim Ltd is proud to announce that 1,400 partnering smallholders in Madang Province have obtained an organic certification for Vanilla planifolia and tahitensis.
Kamapim Ltd. together with more than 1,394 farmers from 17 remote villages from Yikmol and Kokomav Associations in Madang have successfully become US (NOP) organically certified and are in conversion for organic certification for Australia and Europe.
Certification schemes give the customer the assurance that the produce they are buying is being produced organically with full traceability.
To meet the Organic certification requirements, farmers together with Kamapim field officers learnt to use Agricultural technology on mobile phones to map farms and record data for internal control schemes.
“Getting to this result has been a long process, started four years ago. Looking for an alternative to logging or mining, the clans partnered with Kamapim Ltd. in the sustainable production of high-quality vanilla. We work with our farmers. We ask them how we can improve, teach them how they can improve. Partnering with farmers together, we can do more than normally thought possible”, says Dr Nancy Irwin, Managing Director- Kamapim Ltd.
The Organic certification helps the farmers to access new markets while assuring consumers that their vanilla is produced in line with Organic standards. Kamapim Ltd has developed these supply chains because they have an established connection with the farmers and a history of consistent supply and demand.
Assured by sustainable income, the farmers then choose to formally protect their rainforests and conserve their biodiversity.
Bryan Lavate, secretary of Yikmol association, is proud that farmers were able to achieve their aim after being involved with every step of the process: “Kamapim Ltd. has trained the farmers to map and go back to traditional ways of using land, we have passed our own laws within our conservation deeds to reinforce organic production and ways to look after our environment and water”, states Bryan.
Likewise, Timothy Anangawe, Chair of the Kokomav Association is enthusiastic about this new recognition: “We know working towards organic certification will show the market how good our vanilla is. I want the world to know that buying our organic vanilla is a sustainable way to support our remote community while we guard and protect our large rainforest,” Timothy said.
Fairly traded by Envirium Life Sciences and Kamapim Ltd. on the international market, the vanilla enables smallholders to increase their livelihoods. Recently, a profit share was given to the associations representing the clans which they will invest back into their own communities.
The business model developed by Envirium Life Sciences in Papua New Guinea and in the other countries where it is active (Republic of Congo with the Virunga and Garamba Parks, Mangoky Ihotry in Madagascar) aims to help locals in creating more value from their land and developing sustainable revenues while contributing to the protection of nature.
KAMAPIM Ltd. is a Papua New Guinea registered company founded in 2018. Located in Madang, the company created a business model tailored for PNG local communities, based on the preservation of traditional culture and the protection of large tracks of the primary rainforest.