The first National Workshop on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Green Trade Project for Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) countries found place on 31 May 2022 from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm at the Lamana Hotel in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG).

The workshop was held in a hybrid format in which national participants attended physically while regional and international participants attended online. The workshop involved key government officials as well as the private sector, including producers and exporters of Vanilla. The workshop was divided in two parts. The first one focused on raising awareness on Green Trade and how the project supports it. It included presentations about the MSG Green Trade Project, the methodology of non-tariff measures (NTMs) data collection, a presentation of the EU-STREIT Programme and of vanilla value chain in PNG. In the second part, members of the national industry, research institutions and national authorities have discussed and presented about the different elements of the vanilla industry and value chain in PNG.

This first national workshop allowed to reunite a large scope of stakeholders to discuss about green trade in PNG and the challenges facing the vanilla value chain, particularly as an export product.

In the follow-up of this workshop, the national consultant, supported by the PNG national authorities, the MSG secretariat and UNCTAD will continue its work on assessing the development of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) for vanilla.

To know more about NTM and VSS:

• Non-tariff measures (NTM) data collection  
• Voluntary sustainable standards (VSS) assessment