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| Only urban PNG relies on rice | |
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Discussions based on facts are
usually the most useful. It might therefore be timely to remind people of the real situation in regard to that favourite food, rice. There are some misleading suggestions going around that PNG has “only” seven months’ supply of rice in the country, and that when this runs out, we will all somehow face panic and starvation. Fact: PNG usually has about two months supply on hand. Right now, Trukai is holding a seven-month security stock, with forward purchasing going on all the time to further increase the reserve. New grain stores are bulging, the Lae sports stadium is being rented as a rice store, and more shiploads of rice are being off-loaded at Lae as we speak. Then there’s the assertion that rice costs urban households “50% of the family income”. Does anyone seriously believe that families spend half of all their disposable income on this one food item? Fact: Across PNG, rice accounts for just 4.4% of family nutrition. In the faraway places, rice is scarcely eaten at all, and the whole range of PNG garden produce supplies all the nutrition. Recent reliable surveys by the ANU reveal that Papua New Guinea’s skilful gardeners and forest gatherers make use of 400 different locally-grown food plants, not including rice. Kaukau is by far the most important food source, providing 2.8 million tonnes of PNG’s nutrition each year. Lesser quantities of banana, tapioca, taro, coconut, sago and so on, make up a locally-grown food mountain of 4.5 million tonnes. Alongside this, rice imports amount to a mere 190,000 tonnes. In the city, of course, without access to gardens, families consume more manufactured foods. But the figures are still very much in favour of locally produced vegetables, fruits, fish and meat, and also include flour, scones, bread, noodles and biscuits, as well as rice. Fact: Urban families rely on locally grown foods for 50% of their nutritional needs (ANU). Finally, some home grown economist has suggested that PNG’s rice-buying power has been greatly diminished as a result of the drought-reduced supply of Australian grain. Fact: Trukai has become very adept at sourcing quality rice for PNG from a range of rice growing nations, and the Lae mill now produces and packs rice for the supermarket shelves of Australia and New Zealand, a value-adding export success story. Papua New Guinea may not in future chose to pay the premium price for premium Australian rice, but because of the current pressures on world rice supplies, has matured into an international rice player, a good piece of management, and not a crisis at all. Frank Mills Port Moresby |
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