A two-day walk from the nearest road, Karimui people are far from basic services that much of the chocolate-eating, coffee-drinking population of the world takes for granted.
Yet, these are the people growing the cacao and coffee we consume – so we took some time to hear their story, and how MAF plays a key role in their wellbeing.
Story in Pictures by Matt Painter and Aquila Matit.
This is the view out of the aeroplane window in Karimui district: a picture of stark isolation. Mission Aviation Fellowship overcomes this isolation, aiming to bring help, hope and healing to remote communities.
We flew to Karimui district to discover how MAF plays a vital role in enabling local people’s cash crops to be delivered to market. This is the view our pilots have when on final approach to Sorita, one of several airstrips we serve in the region, and one of hundreds that rely on MAF across PNG.
Norman Mondo is a cacao farmer here, and one of the leading cacao farmers in the nation. MAF flies his beans to market in 63 kg bags. “Money from cacao has paid for all my children’s education and helps cover their daily needs,” he says.
In Sorita, thousands of trees yield quality pods in the excellent volcanic soil. In 2019, Norman’s cacao was recognised on a global stage. He won first place in the national Cacao of Excellence competition and was invited to the Salon du Chocolat in Paris.
Local people work in all stages of cacao processing, allowing many to earn some valuable cash income to support their families.
“With what I earn, I buy oil, salt, and soap,” says Misis Siwi, who works on Norman’s plantation. “The rest I save for my children’s school clothes and other needs.”
Cacao beans are carried to the airstrip and loaded on MAF aircraft. But it’s not only cacao that is grown and flown in Karimui district.
Thousands of farmers in this area also grow vanilla, a valuable cash crop also flown out by MAF. These green vanilla pods are freshly harvested from the vine.
The pods are carefully prepared on site in Karimui, before being bagged and flown. Currently, due to their isolation, farmers struggle to find a market for this product.
Mopa Paleah is the leading vanilla farmer and regularly collects vanilla from neighbouring communities such as Mengino. “I receive their vanilla and sell it,” he says. “I bring the farmers’ money back and they buy their salt, their cooking oil, whatever they need, and they go back home joyful.”
Coffee is another cash crop that is grown and flown here in Karimui. Tobias Kakame picks fruit from one of his trees, sorting the best cherries and rejecting those of low quality.
“We fill three to four hundred 50kg bags of coffee, but without planes, there’s no road, no other way out,” coffee farmer and land mediator Gobu Oropha says. “Since I was a child, coffee has been our lifeline. Now, MAF flies my coffee bags to Goroka, and the income supports my ten children – five in school, five out. It pays for fees, books, and clothes.”
Finally, it’s not all ice-cream, espresso and chocolate. Many people in Karimui district grow peanuts, also – and, you guessed it, MAF flies peanuts, too. This garden belongs to a local pastor, who supplements his income with money from peanut sales.
Income from cash crops gives the next generation access to things much simpler than luxuries like chocolate and ice cream: a bit of cash for people in Karimui district means clothes on your back, soap for your skin and an education for your children.