The EU and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) have provided assistance to Papua New Guinea organic produce company Amruqa to upgrade its coconut oil processing facility, according to Islandsbusiness.com.

The new facility will help improve efficiency, enabling the company to export up to 10 metric tons (MT) of coconut oil per month.

The story reported US$70,000 assistance was facilitated by the EU-funded Increasing Agricultural Commodity Trade (IACT) project, and implemented by the SPC's Land Resources Division.

The processing machinery and equipment were handed over by EU Delegation to Papua New Guinea representative Elisabeth Gotschi in May.

Islandsbusiness.com quoted Gotschi as saying she was especially impressed Amruqa was not a company working along, but in fact was in the processing and marketing arm of a much large cooperative which served the entire village.

She added projects like this represent their mission of improving livelihoods of people in the country

The story said in 2011 the EU and the island nation signed the Economic Partnership Agreement which opened up new European markets for products made in Papua New Guinea.

IACT team leader Sami Turagacati reportedly said this assistance had not only helped improve the company's productive capacity and product quality, but it was also providing further income-generating opportunities for various local communities.

He also said the equipment and machinery provided to the company would be used for processing high quality coconut oil that would meet international food safety standards, opening up new doors into larger global markets.

The story reported Amruqa was one of 42 companies that had been receiving assistance from the IACT. Currently, it supplies key markets in Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

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