By FRANCIS RODNEY PULU
MANAGING Director for Kokonas Indastri Koporeisen (KIK), Alan Aku says Papua New Guinea owns 16 million coconut trees with over 96, 000 hectares of land.
Mr Aku disclosed this figure following the launching of 2023 census report of the KIK, which coincided with the officially opening of the just concluded four-day World Coconut Day commemoration event that was held in Port Moresby.
Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), Dr Sergie Kopen Bang and Mr Aku jointing launched the census report.
Mr Aku said for the first time since 1980, theKIK now knows the exact number of coconut trees standing in the country.
He said no planning is workable without data and the need to count the number of coconuts was done looking back to the data in 80s.
Following the counting in 1980, Mr Aku said the coconut land area was estimated to be around 321, 000 hectares.
“So, we saw the need that we should count the number of coconuts in the country,” the MD said.
“We explored ways and we found a way. We used drone and the satellite to count the number of coconuts,” he said.
Aku said in September 2023, he gave the challenge to his research and development officers to count every coconut tree that stands in the country.
“So, we took the challenge from November and December 2023 and it took us five months to count all the coconuts in this country.
“We now know exactly how many coconuts we have in this country,” he said.
Aku said the census was done by visiting every province, district, the local level government and ward.
“And so, we can tell whoever Governor from any Province that your province has these number of coconuts.”
He said from the census the numbers of coconut tree have been profiled in five categories.
“We have 5 to 15 meters, 15 to 30 meters, 25 to 35 meters and from 35 meters and above.
“These give us the profile that we can identify the number of coconut palms standing in the country.”
Mr Aku added that going forward the industry is doing plantation appraisal to demarcate old plantations.
“We will know the latest number of trees and their profile thereafter,” he said.
“We will be developing investment strategies for rehabilitation and new planting going forward.”
Meanwhile, he thanked the Marape-Rosso Government for helping the industry to conduct the census.
