In order to successfully manage a large work force, NBPOL needs a strong management structure in place to ensure the labour intensive plantation operations run at an optimal level of efficiency. To achieve this, NBPOL's plantations are divided into 3 plantation groups, namely Mosa, Kapiura and Numundo. Each group has between 5-6 plantations which are overseen by a group manager, who is responsible for co-ordinating and assisting the plantation managers.

Each plantation has a manager with up to 1 assistant manager in charge of a division, which typically has between 600 and 1,300 hectares planted with oil palms. The divisions are further divided into smaller manageable sizes called management units averaging 100 hectares each. The labour force is approximately one employee for every seven hectares under cultivation.

New areas totalling 3,000 hectares are currently under development in the Kapiura and Numundo Groups with work on 770 hectares of this already commenced. The Company has detailed plans to expand plantings along the West North Coast of New Britain over the next 10 years, increasing the total planted hectarage to approximately 53,000 hectares in West New Britain alone. This projected growth into new areas combined with a scheduled replanting program of our older palms demonstrates the Company's commitment to reinvestment in Papua New Guinea.

New areas are planted on land with full stakeholder participation including landowners, Government Departments and the Company within an effective legal framework. Great care is taken to ensure that effective buffer zones are established along watercourses and a zero-burning policy is a way of life for NBPOL planters. Residual vegetation is windrowed to provide an organic matter Bank, replenished by palm fronds, which are regularly pruned throughout the life of the plantation.

At 2 years after field planting the Dami palms are bearing fruit some 12 months earlier than the industry standard. This productive variety of oil palm yields fruit all year round, it is only replanted when it simply becomes to tall to harvest cost effectively, some 20 to 25 years later. Palms over the age of 6 years have the ability to produce in excess of 30 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches per hectare per year.

Harvesting, whilst continuous through the year, is mildly seasonal, with the period of January to June (inclusive) providing about 60% of the normal crop. The oil palm carries several fresh fruit bunches ("FFB") at various stages of development at any one time. Each Management unit is harvested 2 to 3 times a month, at which point the ripe bunches are cut and evacuated from the field using either wheelbarrows or by loading straight into scissor-lift trailers.

The fruit is then delivered into 15 tonne skip bins, which are collected with minimum delay by the NBPOL transport fleet that are fitted with a hydraulic hook-lift system and   the crop is then transported to one of the Company's mills for processing.