As a boy, Kingstan Kamuri spent many days traversing the ruins of old plantations along the coast of the Central Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Thanks to his father’s enthusiasm for the great outdoors, Kamuri developed a passion for hunting, trekking, and exploring the remains of what were once great farming estates in Abau.

“I grew up seeing most of the ruins and the remains of a lost thriving agricultural era in our country’s history. The first cacao trees I saw were near Merani when I was about 10 years old. As a child my favourite pastime was gardening. Every time we travelled somewhere I would bring back an orchid, or a tree or wild plant as a souvenir and try to grow it in our garden at home,” Kamuri said.

But it was in his adult years that Kamuri learnt to appreciate the peace and tranquillity that rural living offered, and this eventually led to his keen interest in cocoa farming.

After returning from studying in Australia in 2009, Kamuri started a full-time job working in the PNG health sector. Three years later, after gaining enough exposure and experience, he started his own pharmaceutical import and wholesale distribution company supplying medicine to Government Area Medical Stores and private hospitals around the country.

In 2015, Kamuri returned home to his family’s cacao plantation in Abau District, Central Province which had been left to grow wild since the 1940s.

“Our family had land in Abau that was sitting idle. After a few weekend trips up and down the highway with friends and family, I realised how peaceful life was out there from the stresses of the city. It also reignited my passion for gardening and my childhood dreams of one day trying to revive some of the old plantations that I’d grown up hearing inspiring stories about,” he said.

Bringing the ruins back to life

Those trips eventually led Kamuri to start his own commercial cocoa plantation and export business – Manabo Cocoalands Development Limited. When he first started, there was a lot of scepticism about his venture. Historically in Abau, cocoa has always been regarded as a failed crop by many locals in the greater Cloudy Bay area.

“Given the history of the cacao tree in the area, a lot of the locals were telling me that the project was going to fail. I established the farm in 2015 when PNG Cocoa and Coconut Industry (PNG-CCI) at the time had set up a cocoa bud wood garden at Manabo Station next to us,” Kamuri said.

“I was invited by Mr James Sarufa who was looking after the program at the time to go visit the bud wood garden. After seeing the trees flourish so well in James’s bud wood garden, this reinforced the idea for me to go and plant cocoa on a full commercial scale.”

Fast forward to 2019, the company was employing over 25 locals from the hinterlands between Central and Milne Bay Province to maintain over 80,000 cacao trees in the family plantation. By then, Kamuri had found a ready buyer located five hours away by road – Queen Emma Chocolate.