HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 586: 19 October 2011

Pearl Authority consults with Fonterra director
With New Zealand Aid injecting approximately $3million into the Pearl Authority over the next three years, New Zealand High commissioner to the Cook Islands John Carter, in partnership with the Cook Islands Pearl Authority, invited Greg Gent to come and advise the Cook Islands Pearl Authority on the best plan going forward to utilise the funds effectively.
Gent is a board member director of New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra New Zealand, and during his visit he will be consulting with various stakeholders in the pearl industry in order to advise the industry on its long term plans. Gent will also be looking to pass on his expertise and experience to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Business Trade Investment Board.
George Ellis, CEO of the Cook Islands Pearl Authority, expressed that the Cook Islands pearl industry is in need of reform in order to make it a more effective and dynamic industry, and he described the funding as part of the journey. “We hope the design of the project will work out and achieve for us the goals we have set - which by the way is quite ambitious - and that is to double our production capacity over three years and increase our export potential and value by at least 60% by 2015. That’s our challenge. A lot of changes will have to be done to be more effective - from the farmers point of view, all the key players and what we now call the value chain: the farmers, the retailers, the wholesalers and of course the ultimate party in that chain being the consumer worldwide.”
John Carter commended Ellis on his support of the initiative to bring Gent to the Cook Islands and emphasised that advice on how best to achieve the goals within the pearl industry would be welcomed. “Any support we can get is going to be beneficial.”
-Ngariki Ngatae

Herald Issue 554 09 March
- Norm exposes Trio of Doom
- Briefs from PM’s media conference Tuesday
- Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy
- Norman George resigns from Cook Islands Party
- Letter of Resignation from CIP
- Norman selfish says Prime Minister

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