2017, Volume 20, Paper 4

ISSN: 1442-6951

Understanding Consumer Preferences for Sweetpotato in Papua New Guinea*

Hui-Shung Christie Chang – Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the UNE Business School, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, email: hchang@une.edu.au.

Rene Villano – Associate Professor at the UNE Business School, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, email: rvillan2@une.edu.au.

Donald Irving – Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute for Rural Futures, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, email: donald.irving.nsw@gmail.com.

John Lark Kewa – Market Information Specialist at the Fresh Produce Development Agency, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, email: johnlark.kewa@gmail.com.

Anton Mais – Senior Scientist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research, Lae, Papua New Guinea, email: anton.mais.nari@gmail.com.

Abstract

Sweetpotato is the most important food crop in Papua New Guinea, grown and consumed by the majority of rural households in the Highlands. In recent decades, it has become an important source of income for smallholder farmers in a developing cash economy while demand also appears to be rising due mainly to urbanisation, especially in city centres on the coast, such as Lae and Port Morseby. Smallholder farmers have been encouraged to commercialise and increase production to meet increasing market demand. However, long distance marketing from the Highlands to the coastal cities is full of challenges for smallholder farmers. One of which is not knowing what the market wants. The objective of the study was to understand, through a consumer survey in Port Moresby, consumption of sweetpotato vis a vis other food staples, as well as consumer preferences for variety and product attributes. The results show that while the demand for sweetpotato appears to be increasing in some segments of the Port Moresby market, changing socio-demographics and lifestyles poses a serious threat to the longer term prospects of the sweetpotato sector. Consumers, especially the younger generations, are moving away from sweetpotato and towards rice and wheat products for availability and convenience reasons. Furthermore, the survey results show that consumers have clear and strong preferences for some particular sweetpotato varieties and their associated product attributes. However, it has not been easy to find what they want because of lack of market information on what is on offer. Our main conclusion is that to be more competitive with rice and other foods, sweetpotato farmers and other value chain players need to become market-oriented, and work with policymakers to invest in infrastructure, market research and extension.

Key words: sweetpotato, marketing, consumer demand, Papua New Guinea, value chain.

*We thank the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for funding this project “An integrated approach to systemic change and sustained development of sweetpotato value chain in PNG”.

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