Emmanuel MAIPE

A local female entrepreneur, who has been supporting local taro farmers in the Morobe province by exporting their products to overseas markets, has been encouraged to continue with what she is doing with the help of the government to further grow the market opportunity of quality taro from Papua New Guinea (PNG). Mrs. Anna Wissink is the Managing Director of Muruk Tropical Produce Limited. The company exports frozen taros from PNG to selected markets in the United State of America (USA) and Australia. She operates by buying fresh taros from the farmers in the five districts of Morobe Province; that is Nawaeb, Huon Gulf, Markham, Finschhafen and Lae, and even from outside the province like from Mt. Hagen city in Western Highlands province, which she later exports. It is because of the focus of her business operation that she initially requested the Department of Agriculture to look at the demand for taro, the cost of freight, and the level of subsidies that could be provided for taro alone to support the local taro farmers. “We have been receiving requests from taro farmers across the country who want to sell their taros to us, but high freight cost is a serious issue that we are struggling with,” Mrs. Wissink said. “The taros are there; they are locked up in the village, we cannot move them to the market because of the freight cost.” While this has been going on, the demand for taro continues to increase in the markets the company exports to. “Our market in the USA wants us to supply eight 20-feet reefer of frozen taros a month- that is how big the market is. Our selling price for a 20-feet reefer (14 tons of frozen taro) to the USA is K136, 000 and to Australia is K126, 000.” “The market is there, the demand is there, the supply is there, and the farmers are willing to participate, but freight is a serious issue.” “We need government’s immediate assistance to this infant export industry by ways of freight subsidy,” Mrs. Wissink added. Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, while visiting her company in Lae city recently, acknowledged her concerns and assured Mrs. Wissink that he would request the Minister for Agriculture to look into this and have the department assist in the taro business. “Our short-term goal is to provide freight subsidy for taro alone and the long-term goal is to go into large-scale commercial taro farming in Morobe and expand to other provinces as the demand grows,” Minister Maru said. “The last thing we want is to kill the market opportunity by not being able to deliver more taros to meet the demand because it is difficult to get the taro to Lae due to high cost of freight." “We need to support our SMEs like Muruk Tropical Produce Limited and our taro farmers just like how we have supported our coconut, coffee, and cocoa farmers in the freight subsidy,” he added. Minister Maru also congratulated Mrs. Wissink for her efforts in exporting PNG taro to overseas markets and supporting local taro famers in the country.  

Footy fans in the city of Port Moresby have something to look forward to this weekend, the start of the 2024 AFL season; however, they might be disappointed because the season opener will now depend on the weather. Port Moresby AFL Association President, Mr. Douglas Lai said as per the calendar for the 2024 season, the pre- season is schedule to start this Saturday 16th March at the Colts Oval, but this might be pushed back to a later date due to the current bad weather being experienced in the city. “If it continues to further rain throughout the week, we may have to push back the starting date because the field (Colts Oval) will be flooded, making it difficult for matches to be played on the field,” said the president. The Colts Oval itself is located in a part of the Bisini Sports Precinct where the surface is a bit sunken from the surrounding area and therefore, whenever there is a massive storm or continuous heavy rain, the area becomes flooded, and the turf becomes very soft afterwards. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the weather becomes fine as the week progresses. Meanwhile, this season might see a reduction in the number of clubs participating in the competition with one AFL club facing banishment from the field for its involvement in the unfortunate on- field violence incident last year during the grand finals.

Goodman Fielder International (GFI), after establishing its new feed mill in Lae city, now calls on the government to establish a corn industry in the country because of the potential it will have with regards to manufacturing feeds locally for commercially farmed animals. The GFI Managing Director, Mr. Sun Xing Tao made this call during the visit of the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru and the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) team to GFI’s new feed mill at 11mile in Lae city on Tuesday 05th March. “With our new USD200 million worth world-class feed mills, we can produce chicken and pig feed as good as anywhere in the world depending on what the farmers want,” said the GFI Managing Director. “Right now, we are importing wheat as our basic ingredient for feed; however, our big challenge is that we wait for over a month for our order to arrive and it is very expensive because of the declining value of the Kina.” He said GFI is willing to substitute to a corn-based diet and buy all the corn that local farmers can produce so to reduce imports of wheat for feed, but this can be achieved only with the input of the National Government. “The Government must support us by establishing a commercial corn industry, so we can fully utilize our feed mill whose current under-utilized capacity is around 6, 000 metric tons per month (72, 000 metric tons per year), which is more than enough to replace all importation of poultry feed,” said Mr. Sun.” Meanwhile, much to the delight of GFI, Minister Maru encouraged GFI to negotiate a Memorendum of Understanding (MoU) with NARI to go into large-scale commercial corn faming to supply feed to GFI feed mill. “PNG imported over 49, 000 metric tons of feed last year,” the minister revealed. “We have to stop importing by going into large-scale commercial corn farming so we can stop spending over K70 million annually to import feed alone- this money should be going into our people’s pockets.” “The market and the capacity are already here but we are not producing. Once we start using local feed, we will ban all the imports of feed so we can support the local industry,” added Minister Maru.

Following the increase of fuel prices last month, this month will also see another increase of prices for all petroleum products distributed in the country. The Independent Consumer and Competitions Commission (ICCC) announced in a statement that for March, the Indicative Retail Prices for petrol, diesel, and kerosene will all increase on average throughout Papua New Guinea (PNG). The retail price increases are mainly attributed to the average increases in international crude oil prices in February. “The average crude oil price increases were caused by disruptions to shipping in the Red Sea and via the Suez Canal, signaling an increased demand amid a reduction in crude oil supply,” the ICCC said in the statement. So, for Port Moresby city, the new price rates are K4.67 per liter for petrol, K4.50 per liter for Diesel and K4.07 per liter for kerosene. Retail prices for other centers will change according to their quarterly approved domestic freight rates for the first quarter of 2024, and their respective annual retail margins for this year. “For all other centers, the maximum retail prices for each regulated petroleum product will all increase on average consistent with the increase observed for Port Moresby.” The domestic retail fuel prices for this month are inclusive of Import Parity Prices (IPPs) or the imported costs for each petroleum product, domestic sea road freight rates for the first quarter of 2024, the annual wholesale and retail margins for 2024, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), including the applicable excise duties among other parameters. The changes to the prices of the petroleum products started today, Friday 08th March.

The Independent Consumer and Competitions Commission (ICCC) has discovered from its national price inspection exercise that rice has been the main food item on the Commission’s watch list that has seen illegal price hikes imposed by a good number of shops in Port Moresby city. The ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Paulus Ain, says rice was the main product or food item that saw traders increasing their prices above the 10% limit without seeking prior approval from the ICCC, breaching Price Measure No. 4. “The ICCC acknowledged that prices are increasing due to increases at the supply end; however, it is advisable that traders must approach the ICCC to seek approval before increasing the prices of listed goods,” said the Commissioner. The listed goods are the ICCC declared goods (which includes rice) listed in Schedule 1 of the Price Measure No. 4 that should not be increased beyond the 10% limit. Nevertheless, while some shops have increased the prices of goods sold, the ICCC noted that a few shops have maintained their prices at reasonable levels, not above the 10% limited, and ICC commends those shops for complying. Meanwhile, the ICCC team continues its price inspections and this week over 50 Infringement Notices were issued to shops in Port Moresby and also parts of Central province for breaching Price Measure No. 4. Mr. Ain warned those shops that have been issued with infringement notices to settle their fines of K10, 000 within 14 days. If they fail to settle this fine, the ICCC will take them to court for breaching Measure No. 4.

The Minister for International Trade and Investment wants to see pacific island states and the rest of the world come together and do more to protect the fish stocks in pacific waters from overfishing by foreign fishing vessels. Minister Richard Maru, following the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, stated that the demands of the big influential foreign fishing nations, who are not prepared to remove harmful fisheries subsidies, will lead to overfishing which will eventually lead to the destruction of tuna and fisheries stocks right throughout the Pacific Region. “I reminded the WTO Director General and the Chair of the Fisheries Negotiations many times during our meetings at MC13 that fish is the only resource for many Pacific Island nations and we cannot allow anyone to destroy our fish,” said the minister. “The distant water fishing nations forget that they do not own the resources. 50 per cent of the world’s tuna is found in the Pacific Region- we are the custodians and we have a stewardship responsibility over these resources, not only for us, but our future generations and also for the world.” He said the whole fisheries negotiations has failed because the distant water fishing nations were not willing to compromise with pacific countries on what they felt was best for them under a win-win partnership, hence the next step now he suggested was for island nations to take ownership of fishing in their own waters as a way forward. “The real motives of the distant water fishing nations have been seen- they are not here to look after our future,” he said. “So, it is up to us to rise up, have our own fishing fleets, fish our own waters, and start processing our fish onshore so we can fish in ways that are sustainable and we can preserve our marine resources for our current generation and the generations to come.” Maru said this is something that Papua New Guinea (PNG) is now tapping into under his leadership as the Minister for International Trade and Investments. “For Papua New Guinea, we are negotiating for a Joint Venture with RD Corporation to start our own local fishing fleet. “There must come a point in time when we would not need other people to come and fish in our waters. We will embark on the domestication of our fishing industry from 2024 onwards with the proposed Joint Venture and PMIZ (Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone),” he added.

Prime Minister (PM) James Marape has called on the Opposition to stop misleading the public and inciting anxiety among the people after accusing them of creating dissent regarding the vote-of-no confidence motion. "It is very irresponsible of the Opposition MPs or the so-called Alternate Government to be contesting issues concerning their vote-of-no-confidence motion in the public space, which the Parliament Private Business Committee has deemed to be flawed and does not qualify to be listed on Parliament notice," Marape stated. He made this statement in response to the Opposition's announcement, revealing their decision to forego challenging the actions of the Private Business Committee in court. Marape had earlier welcomed the Opposition’s plan to bring to court their grievances with the Private Business Committee's decisions, but was surprised that they now are saying that they will not go to court but wait for Parliament to resume to mount another challenge. “Their decision to challenge Government is within their constitutional rights but it is becoming apparent that a big part of their political strategies involves the use of social media or mainstream media outlets, to cause public confusion, apprehension and tension,” the PM said. "After Parliament was adjourned to May, the Opposition claimed they would challenge the Private Business Committee's actions in court." "They have every right to do so; however, their recent declaration of abandoning the legal challenge in favor of waiting for the May sitting of Parliament, primarily leveraging social media for dissent, merely breeds confusion," added the PM. The prime minister further highlighted the inconsistency in the Opposition's actions, implying a lack of confidence in their legal stance. Marape noted that during the February Parliament session, the Opposition failed to demonstrate significant support, notably during the vote to declare PNG a Christian country, where they could not muster more than 14 members against the government's overwhelming majority. He is now appealing to the public to recognize the Opposition's tactics as an attempt to incite dissent, potentially leading to unrest, and he criticized certain media outlets for supporting these divisive strategies, and urged the Opposition to engage in constructive political debate and leadership. Nevertheless, PM Marape reassures the nation that the government remains unshaken by the vote of-no-confidence motion. He emphasized adherence to due process and proper procedure as outlined by the Constitution, Standing Orders and Supreme Court rulings, and condemns any further attempts to undermine these processes through improper submissions or without full consent in procuring support for the motion, as any such actions would be scrutinized by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.   Ends//EM

The country’s consumer watchdog, the Independent Consumer and Competitions Commission (ICCC) has been on the prowl inspecting shops to see if they have been complying with the price measures imposed on certain goods under the Commission's radar. In Port Moresby city, the price inspection exercise this week discovered about twenty- five shops in various suburbs in breach of Price Measure No. 4 and were issued with Infringement Notices (IN) on Tuesday, 27th February 2024. The ICCC staff were deployed throughout the city and parts of Central province as well to inspect shops and verify whether they have been complying with Price Measure No. 4, which was issued under the National Pandemic Act 2020 by the Office of the Controller on 30th March 2023. Measure No.4 states that the price increases of declared goods, which includes rice, sugar and flour, must not be above ten percent or more. Since the commencement of the inspection, more than twenty shops were inspected and twenty- five were caught increasing the prices of the declared goods without seeking prior approval from the ICCC. The ICCC officers on the ground said shop owners or managers were informed last year during the first phase of the price inspection; however, seeing price increases on some of the listed items was sheer negligence and ignorance on their part. It was discovered that some shops had more than ten items with their prices increased above ten percent. ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Paulus Ain, also said they had conducted mass awareness nationwide to inform shop owners about Measure No. 4 and the penalties for noncompliance. He explained that Measure No. 4 came into effect due to the effects of inflation experienced in the country, and after shops had calculated the selling prices for their goods, they are not to take advantage of the inflation and unnecessarily increase the final selling price for the goods. “We told them that if they lift the prices without our approval, then the penalty is K10, 000 on the spot fine, and if they refuse, we then proceed to the courts.” Meanwhile, the ICCC will continue to carry out the second phase of its nationwide price surveillance after starting just last month. Phase one of the price surveillance and inspection exercise was conducted between August and October of 2023 and the prices collected during phase one will be used as ‘base prices’ by the ICCC to monitor any subsequent price increases of the declared goods.

Footy fans in the city of Port Moresby are expected to see some changes to the lineup of teams that will be participating in this year’s AFL competition, as they prepare to welcome the 2024 season. According to the President of the Port Moresby AFL Association, Mr. Douglas Lai, this is because two clubs could face exclusion from the competition this year; one for its involvement in the on-field violence witnessed during the 2023 finals, while the other for not meeting certain requirements to continue in this year’s competition. The Port Moresby AFL Association members, following their meeting this week, submitted their recommendations regarding the two clubs to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) AFL Commission for deliberation. Mr. Lai said the association is now awaiting further instructions from the PNG AFL Commission on whether to go ahead with the exclusions, or not. He added that if the exclusion does go ahead, this will mean both the men’s and women’s teams of these two particular clubs be removed from the competition. This then would see only eight clubs left to participate this season. Nevertheless, the 2024 AFL season is set to kick off this month says the president. “The pre-season will start on the 16th of March with the proper season to commence on the following week,” President Lai said. The AFL Easter Cup will be on again this year with the event set for April.

A small delegation from Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be visiting New Zealand (NZ) in April to hold high-level talks on trade and investment between the two nations. The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru said the visit to NZ will be to learn from the experience of New Zealand’s capital market industry and seek New Zealand Government’s support to transform the Securities Commission of PNG and the capital market industry of PNG. Whilst there, the PNG delegation will also visit the chicken and dairy farms and invite the New Zealand investors in these industries to invest in PNG, especially in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). “We want to look at New Zealand’s chicken industry and invite the New Zealand investors in this industry to come and invest in PNG because we still continue to import an estimate of over K100 million worth of chicken annually and this results in loss of jobs and revenue for our MSMEs, SMEs, and our industry. We want to stop that.” “We also do not want to be exposed to the risk of imported chicken diseases like the Avian Influenza and others. We want to produce enough day-old chicks to supply the entire need of our nation, our farmers, and our industry so we are able to produce enough chicken locally to meet the growing demand for chicken,” said Minister Maru. This visit and meeting planned for April was agreed upon between Minister Maru and the NZ Minister for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing, Forestry, and Trade, Mr. Todd McClay during their meeting on Sunday at the margins of the World Trade Organization (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The National Executive Council (NEC) has issued emergency orders under the Essential Services Act of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to drastically address the fuel crisis currently faced in the country. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape today announced these orders, stating that the aim is to ensure the consistent supply of fuel by Puma Energy at this point in time. Marape said these emergency orders are just short term solution to the fuel crisis in order to give time for the government to work towards are long term solution going forward. The initial order is to have the Minister for Petroleum and Energy to issue direction to Puma Energy to continue with the fuel supply, especially for the aviation, even if it means filling up its tanks at Napanapa with supply from other distributors willing to assist with the supplies. The second is to ask the BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP) to continue to hold Puma accounts while all parties involved continue to work towards an amicable solution, and the third is to have the Bank of PNG (BPNG), within a month, furnish to government the issues they may have with Puma that has seen the Bank unable to grant Puma’s requests. “With respect to commercial banks having the right to hold accounts, but we ask BSP to maintain Puma’s account for one more year for us to work through and especially get the report from Central Bank, and for us as a country look at the alternate solution,” said Marape. For a more longer-term solution to the problem, the PM said the government will be looking to enact some laws to prevent such situations in future. “We will enact laws when we come to parliament in May,” the prime minister affirmed. “We will pass certain laws on the monopoly of fuel supply and we open up the market and also allow for Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL), to be our National Energy Company that will work with subsidiaries in our country for the importation of fuel and the distribution of fuel in our country.” The reason for this, Marape explained that it was due to an agreement that was made way back in 1999 by the State and the predecessor of Puma Energy to enable a monopoly in the fuel importation and distribution that has led to this current situation; hence, a change in the laws is required to address this going forward. The NEC approved and endorsed these emergency orders following the recommendations put forth by the National Security Council after their meeting yesterday. Marape concluded by saying that these emergency orders come with very tough penalties with it to be imposed on organizations that do not comply with the orders. They include very heavy fines and even imprisonment.

Air Niugini is expected to have sufficient aviation fuel to keep its services ongoing after the airline company signed a recent contract to purchase a cargo of jet fuel directly from Puma Energy’s international supplier; however, the wait for the jet fuel to arrive might be a bit too long. In a statement released today, the fuel company revealed that subject to Air Niugini fulfilling the new contract, replacement jet fuel is expected to be available in Port Moresby by late this week, but unfortunately, due to the court order forcing Puma Energy to maintain maximum supply of jet fuel to Air Niugini, its existing supply has depleted significantly quicker than Puma had expected. “We believe that despite our efforts to preserve limited stock, Puma Energy will have no further jet fuel available in Port Moresby from as early as today - until such time as the replacement cargo purchased by Air Niugini arrives.” This could likely see some flight disruptions for a period of time, but Air Niugini has been presented with a number of mitigating options by Puma Energy to maintain their flight schedule, including utilizing jet fuel available in airports outside of Port Moresby city. “We continue to protect jet supply to meet demand for emergency services, including medical operators and the police in Port Moresby. Despite the active court order, we believe Air Niugini will allow fuel supply for emergency services to be prioritized in the interest of Papua New Guinea (PNG).” Puma Energy’s decision to reduce the size of its operations and fuel supply proportionate to the capacity of its remaining banking channels, was announced last week and came after extensive engagement with various government stakeholders, including the Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) to find a long-term and sustainable banking solution. Puma Energy continues to urge the Government set up a task force to minimize the impact on fuel supply disruptions to communities and the economy. Despite the current challenges, Puma Energy remains committed to staying in PNG in the long term. The company's management remains hopeful that it can increase its banking capacity and grow back the size of its business to historical levels.