THE JOURNAL OF THE LIKLIK BUK

APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
NETWORK

No. 28. FEBRUARY 1985

LABU BUTU'S
LIME
FACTORY
Written by Norman Q.uinn
While it is obvious that marine resources
play an important role in the diet of coastal
village people, it is less generally
recognized that these resources also
contribute to the economy and social
patterns of the villagers non-food activities.
The technology of lime manufacture for the
production of Kambungwhich is used in the
chewing of buaiis outlined in this article.
The wdmen of Labu Butu operate Lae's
largest lime "factory"!! Shells are gathered
by small groups of women from between
the mangrove roots in the estuary. The shell
is extremely common and easily gathered
by hand. lf the animal has died, the shell is
occupied by hermit crabs and given another
name by the villagers, but it is still usef ul in
making lime.
4'
fhe women have returned from the swamp with shetls and sago palm branches
After returning to the village in the late
afternoon the shells are placed between
layers of sago palm branches that were a lso
cut in the estuarythat day and burned. The
ashes are hand separated from the white
shells and the latter mixed with water,
sifted through mosquito netting, dried and
packed in various sized plastic bags for sale
in the Lae market.
A survey of the lime carried to market was
performed on 26 mornings at the mouth of
the Markham River f rom 20 February to 27
May 1982. Three hundred andfiftywomen
carried about 12 kgs each, totaling over 4
tonnes of lime.
The value of lime fishery is difficult to
determine owing to pricing variability. The
u
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Setting lime at Lae Market'

weight contained in the smallest bag which
sells for 1Ot varies greatly. Additionally
prices change with the volumes sold. The
women recognize the necessity of
presentation in their product and hence
seal each bag with a lot of air. The bag is
vigorously shaken before being positioned
for selling to insure the illusion of plenty of
lime. During the day the bags are also
periodically shaken to sustain this illusion.
A conservative estimate of a price of K3 per
kilogram would place the value of an
average load of lime per woman at K36. On
a typical Saturday around 20women would
carry that amount of lime to market with a
total market value of around K72O. That is
worth around K37,500 per year just based
on Saturdays' sales. lf a lower productivity
is considered for the other six days of the
week, it would not be unreasonable to
estimate the annual value of this lime
factory at over K1O0,OO0.
As recently as 1973 the traditional use of
marine resources was undervalued by
anthropologists and others who suggested
that such activities were undertaken for f un
and not f rom necessity. I have shown in this
article that a traditional technology exists
for the manufactureof Kambungby women
which has resulted in a lucrative industry
that is neither acknowledged by the
government's statistician as industrial
output or taxed by government revenue
collectors. ln short, the creative ingenuity of Collecting shells in the mangrove
the Labu Butu people has developed a estuary.
village based manufacturing industry that
meets the critical approval of thousands of
satisf ied users without any outside
assistance, interference or regulation.