As you travel along the highland’s highway, you will come across a place called Yamox village. This village is in the Watabung LLG, Daulo District and is home to Mr. Ori Keronga a local fresh produce aggregator and buyer.

Ori is called a lead partner under the MVF project and represents one source of income for the people in Yamox village. His role is essential and affects the lives of over 137 farmers who depend on him and the cooperative he heads to deliver their produce to markets and bring sales revenue back to them.

He is a strong-willed man, who had begun this work during his younger years and has persisted despite the many challenges he faces in the fresh produce business. 

A number of times, he lost hope and thought of retiring from this service, but his heart for his people could not allow him to rest. 

Since partnering with the project in 2023, he has used the cost sharing grants for lead partners and bought a 3-ton cargo truck to assist in deliveries. Prior to this purchase, deliveries to their point of sales, mainly in Goroka, Lae and Madang were through hired vehicles. This affected the vegetable quality and revenue; money was lost as they lost time trying to find vehicles for hire, careless handling of produce added to the damage and expense for transport increased considerably.

This purchase has greatly improved his marketing by cutting back on travel time, increasing selling time and produce quality while decreasing overhead transport cost and maximising returns to farmers.

Today, 84 more farmers from Yamox vegetables have received K174,000 worth of supplies from the project, thanks to their leading man, Mr Ori Keronga.

Yamox is an inspiring partnership, and we cannot wait to see what this village-based cooperative will do next.

If you are looking to buy produce from our partners, please do not hesitate to contact us directly through DM. We will link you up.

Remember by ordering and buying locally, you are putting money back into the pockets of our farmers, growing the business of our local fresh produce suppliers, improving the livelihoods of farmers and impacting the growth of PNGs fresh produce industry.