Sri Lankan Coconut Giant Eyes Madang for Joint Venture Processing Plant

 PRESS RELEASE

Port Moresby, May 14, 2025- The management team of a Sri Lankan large-scale coconut-based food and beverages manufacturer/exporter, yesterday, met with the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru, to express their keen interest to set up a coconut processing plant in Madang Province under a Joint Venture arrangement with the local investors.

Jaindi Export Pvt Limited has two processing plants in Sri Lanka and, under the brand name ‘econutrena’, they offer expanding and diversified product portfolio, ranging from coconut cream, coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut sugar, coconut butter, coconut whipping cream, coconut ice cream, coconut vinegar, coconut virgin oil, coconut water, coconut flour, coconut chips and coconut milk drinks (to name a few) to their worldwide clients including supermarket chains and high-end supermarkets, food companies, hotels, and the cosmetic industry in Europe, North America, Japan, Australian, Germany, Netherland and other developed countries. Their products are 100 percent organic and are certified under different local and international certifications including USDA Organic, Fairtrade, ISO 22000, Control Union Certifications, Business Social Compliance Initiative, and others.

The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru, said: “Our Government together with the Madang Provincial Government are very keen to work in partnership with the Jaindi Export and Kokonas Indastri Koporesen (KIK) to develop the proposed processing plant in Madang that would have the capacity to process up to 100,000 coconuts per day to produce high-end coconut products. This is a long overdue initiative and I am so delighted that they are keen to start this project. We have been waiting for partners to help us to go into downstream processing of our coconuts to produce high-end products for the global market.”

“Coconut industry is one of the industries in our country that has been around for a long time, but we have been semi-processing and that is one thing that our country and our Government does not want anymore. We do not need to export coconut oil anymore. We want to process our coconuts into final products to maximize our value, create more jobs, and encourage the industry to grow if our people can see a better value.”

“Jaindi Export’s already have big clients in Australia including Woolworths and it is cheaper to supply Australia from PNG rather than from Sri Lanka.”

Minister Maru further stated: “The biggest thing is, we must offer a good price to the farmers for the coconuts so they will be attracted to supply the nuts to the processing plant. This is critical. The products manufactured in the proposed plant must also carry the ‘PNG Made’ logo so the world will know that these coconut products are from PNG.”

Minister Maru encouraged the investor to provide him with a full investment proposal outlining the capacity, production, equity, and the financial and operational viability of the project.

“We look forward to receiving Jaindi Export’s full investment proposal next week,” said Minister Maru.

Minister Maru confirmed that equity will not be an issue.

“I will also work very closely with the Madang Provincial Government to secure 10 hectares of land in Madang for this very important investment that will transform the coconut industry in PNG,” said Minister Maru.

“I want to thank the Managing Director of KIK, Mr. Alan Aku for arranging this important investment mission for this company to meet with me and other key stakeholders,” added Minister Maru.

Ends…//

Approved for Release

Hon. Richard Maru, BTech, MBA, OBE, MP

Minister for International Trade & Investment

Seventh Day Adventist Church and Community Win Legal Battle Against Company and Government

The National Court at Waigani has awarded over K4 Million damages in favour of Morata One Seventh-Day Adventist Church and 22 other Block Holders of Morata One against Sixth Estate Limited.

The eviction was carried out at Morata One suburb in the National Capital District (NCD) between 12th and 14th of October 2022. 

The SDA church and the other 22 Block Holders carried out their own investigations and it was established that the eviction conducted was illegal and improper. They then engaged a lawyer, Silas Kaule of Kaule Legal and filed court proceedings against the company and the State. 

They claimed in the proceedings that the company and the Police had conducted an eviction on the settlers on a parcel of land owned by the company known as Portion 2733 Morata, but during the process of the eviction, encroached or trespassed onto a nearby land occupied by the SDA church and the other 22 Block Holders. 

The nearby land occupied by the SDA church and the other 22 Block Holders was totally outside the boundary of Portion 2733. 

It was alleged, amongst other things, that the company’s action was illegal in that it did not have title to the nearby land and furthermore, there was no court order authorizing the eviction to be carried out by the company on that part of the nearby land. 

The National Court presided by Justice John Carey handed down the decision on April 17 2025 in favour of the Church and the other 22 Block Holders and awarded them damages of over K4 million, covering loss of Church buildings, Block Holders’ properties, breach of constitutional rights and costs.     

Picture caption: Church members triumphant as Court favors them.