The Coffee Industry Corporations is has reminded
dealers to refrain from illegal dealings in 2012.
Acting manager for industry regulation and
compliance, Michael Waim, said CIC was aware of various illegal deals,
including trading of stolen coffee to purchasing of green bean coffee by non
coffee-exporting companies.
Women sorting out coffee beans in a shed used by exporter, Monpi Coffee, in Goroka last year.-Pictures by MALUM NALU |
He said under the CIC Statutory Functions and Powers
Act 1991, “a person other than a registered coffee dealer who conducts a
business of buying or selling; buying and selling or trading in unprocessed
coffee is guilty of an offence”.
“The penalty is a fine not less than K1, 000 and not
exceeding K5, 000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both,”
Waim said.
He said CIC coffee inspectors were doing routine
checks on factories and people buying green beans and one way of detecting illegal
coffee traders was through delivery dockets.
Waim urged dry coffee processors to adhere to processors
guidelines to install distoners (stone removers) and densimetric (sort out
defects) tables in their factories.
Board chairman James Korarome, during a coffee
processors’ and exporter’s meeting last year, called for production of quality
coffee to raise the profile of PNG as a quality coffee producer.
Korarome said if registered coffee companies were
caught involving themselves in illegal dealings, they would be fined K100, 000
or have their licenses revoked.
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