'We Are Ready to Export Vanilla'

Wewak, Papua New Guinea - "We are ready to export," said Ms Nancy Fale, a local vanilla entrepreneur and a beneficiary of the European Union in Papua New Guinea-Funded United Nations in Papua New Guinea Joint STREIT PNG Programme.

Nancy is a women leader of Kunai Oasis Womens Business Group (an all-women agribusiness group) in her community in Tuonumbu Village of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. The programme has supported them since 2020, which have so far gained them successful outcomes to pursue their goal in exporting high quality vanilla beans out of Sepik.
“The programme has supported us with technical trainings, teaching us proper ways of vanilla cultivation, husbandry, processing, providing us production materials and they are now equipping us with new solar dryers which we are privileged and thankful for.” Acknowledged Nancy.

She has been in vanilla business since 2002 when vanilla business was booming in Sepik. She said she exported vanilla beans to Japan, India and Australia but consistency in quality has always been her great challenge. However, with the support from EU STREIT PNG Programme, she believes that she and her 200 plus group members will be able to export very high-quality beans with sufficient quantity to meet international market demands and standards. 
“The solar dryer is giving us very high-quality beans that we don’t usually see before. The beans have shrunk very well and still maintain their sizes; they smell so good and have a uniform colour across.” Explained Nancy after using the solar dryer for the first time.

The vanilla solar dryer distributed by the FAO through EU STREIT PNG Programme to its beneficiaries will have a great impact on vanilla business in the Sepik region, producing quality-dried vanilla beans with minimum efforts while saving time for other tasks.

• It provides an efficient, effective and alternate way of sun-drying vanilla beans after the killing process. It also cuts down the period of drying from nine months to just one and half month.

• The vanilla solar dryer provides the environment in which the vanilla beans go through the drying process acquiring uniform technical specifications such as moisture content, texture, colour, length, and aroma. 

• The solar dryer is basically designed to capture sun-light and turn the flow of cool air into hot air which dries the beans inside its drying chamber, also with specially designed chimneys which are used during rainy period and sunny period that controls the hot air in the chamber to dry the vanilla beans. 

• Production capacity per 3 days of drying is 5kg. 

• The farmers are also provided with Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on how to operate and use the vanilla solar dryers which will ensure production of high-quality vanilla beans. 

With the improvement in vanilla beans quality as the result of providing technical support through the #EU-STREIT PNG Programme in terms of training, provision of proper husbandry and processing tools and the provision of vanilla solar dryer, the Sepik Region is ready to meet the export market requirements in terms of quality and standards. 

Vanilla