By Olivier Fernandez | Vice-President
Dear donors, dear friends, we are please to share our last update on our ongoing projects in support to cocoa producers across the Vanuatu archipelago. Earlier this year back in March, Vanuatu was hit by Cat. 5 cyclone Pam, devastating most of the central and southern islands. Cocoa farmers in the Shefa province and shepherds islands were suffering material losses and our projects have been re-prioritised to cope with urgency and post cyclone relief actions.
On Epi Island, the storage shed we managed to fund and build over the second half of 2014 was severely damaged. Since plantations were in sheltered areas, the losses on trees were quit limited and the farmers asked for assistance in re-building a proper drying area to resume work as soon as possible. We contributed and supplied the concrete bags and iron required to build a clean concrete slab. It is now under construction and we expect to receive cocoa from Epi at the end of August.
Two other projects took place on Malekula Island. The first is in the Lakatoro region, North-East, in partnership with Vanuatu CGA and the SPC to complete the building of a brand new steam dryer with 60 large racks capacity or up to 5 tons per batch. ACTIV was providing additional funding to complete the building and buy construction wood. The CGA team in Lakatoro is now waiting for the boiler to arrive from India to start operations. We will follow closely on this first steam dryer to see if quality of cocoa processing improves as a result.
The second project was on the West coast of Malekula and targeted the rehabilitation of a large scale solar dryer reclaimed from former “Popaca” project. The farmers have re-build the frame and needed a 5m iron pipe to drive the heat into the dryer. ACTIV provided assistance and worked with local iron/welding company to design, cut and assemble the different parts. We have already funded the project and are now arranging for shipment from Efate to Malekula Island. The pipe is 5m long by 60 cm wide and needs to be split for transport and re-assembled on site.
At ACTIV centre on Efate we are now actively working on the re-building of one of our roofs which collapsed under heavy winds and will soon allow reopening our handicraft market and the chocolate factory, both providing local market outputs to the farmers and communities in islands.
We thank our donors for their ongoing support; once again, all these projects would not be possible without your generosity.
By Olivier Fernandez | Co-founder
By Olivier Fernandez | Vice-president
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