Maneke in a press conference on Monday expressed satisfaction with the replanting exercise and raised concerns that overgrown oil palm plants are not producing sufficient yields which resulted in less income for the growers.
Oil palm is the third major crop with 14 percent of the annual export values in PNG. It covers a land area of 58,000 hectares (estate 33,000 ha and smallholder 25,000 ha, involving about 7,000 families).
The estates produce 65 percent of the output and 35 percent from the smallholders.
