KIRAKIRA COCOA FACTORY NOW 90% COMPLETE
BY TAROMANE MARTIN
The Cocoa Factory in Kirakira, Makira Ulawa Province is projected to be up and running by next year, 2026.
Alick Pinihimae, Managing Director for Pinihimae Associations Enterprise Group (PAGE) told SIBC News after meeting with stake holders in Honiara recently.
Pinihimae said the project is 90% complete with the building already completed and is awaiting the procurement of machinery for the factory.
“Actually, the government is funding two components. Infrastructure, which is the building itself and second is the one we recently met with other government stakeholders and that is the machinery parts for the factory.”
“My company has consultants who are already in the country. We’ve met with the Prime Minister’s office rep from the productivity sector, undersecretary Planning Ministry and a good turn out from Commerce. The meeting was to outline what is really needed at this point of time in terms of the phase in machineries,” he said.
He adds that the government is now looking forward to procuring these machineries.
“Since it’s a short time we are thinking of starting off with four products which we’ve been looking at producing once the factory is up and running.”
Meanwhile, Pinihimae said with the project time frame for completion running out, they are now looking at producing two other cocoa products first before doing chocolate productions.
“This Cocoa factory itself is a national project, and the benefits is wide. Makira Ulawa Province definitely will benefit but also the spinoff the whole country will also benefit from this factory. Now because the time frame is short and we need to catch up, we are looking at two products first and then slowly, we will look at the next two or three products.”
“It will help boost the economy because it is down stream, value addition will come in and that is what we presented during our meeting with the leaders from the ministries,” he explained.
Pinihimae said they hope the factory will be at full scale early next year so as to meet the demands of cocoa farmers and producers in the province.
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