With practical training in fish handling, better equipment and improved storage, one coastal fishing group in West Sepik is catching more, reducing losses and using its income to support family needs and sustainable business. 

Four Thai vanilla scientists visited Papua New Guinea’s Sepik region to exchange technical knowledge with local farmers and learn from their field experience. Facilitated by the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, the visit forms part of wider South-South cooperation efforts to strengthen PNG’s vanilla sector. 

A smaller bag on the morning walk points to a wider change underway in Sepik, where a farmer-led cooperative is improving cocoa quality and building stronger market connections, giving farming families another reliable source of income alongside their other livelihood activities. 

A Europe Day reflection on how EU support is helping Sepik communities turn practical investments into stronger livelihoods, better local systems and lasting opportunity. 

Well-ventilated storage facilities keep cocoa and vanilla beans dry and in prime condition for sale. 

Four farmers cooperatives in East Sepik collaborate in their first cocoa export of 240 high-quality cocoa bags (15 metric tonnes) to a premium market in New Caledonia. 

When floodwaters damaged the only bridge connecting Hambini to the outside world, the farmers did not wait. Using community labour and savings from cocoa and vanilla sales, backed by the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, this remote community built a permanent bridge of steel, concrete and timber. The new crossing ends 22 months of isolation and difficult access for 9,000 villagers, restoring a vital route for people, goods and services.