Not enough rice supplied: O’Neill

MAJOR rice suppliers such as Trukai do not produce enough to supply the country, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says.
He said this in response to a series of questions from Northern Governor Gary Juffa on a proposed new rice project in Central.
Juffa said there was speculation that a foreign company had been granted 80 per cent of the domestic rice market.
“Can the prime minister confirm if the purported agreement for rice monopoly, which would grant 80 per cent of the domestic rice market, has been signed or not?”
“If indeed that is the case, where will the company be obtaining its rice from, and what guarantee is there that that rice will be of a quality that would meet our standards that consumer safety is protected?
“Where does that leave our local farmers and Papua New Guineans who may wish to venture into the rice industry?
“We are already doing that with Trukai, which has expanded K40 million in Oro, Central and West New Britain.
“There is also information from reliable sources that the cost of rice will be increase by 40 per cent if this monopoly is granted to this foreign-owned company.
“Finally, the person at the head of this company is purported to be a Tjoko Tjandra, who is wanted in Indonesia for fraud-related banking offences and so forth as listed by Interpol.
“What guarantee do we have that we may be unwittingly facilitating the proceeds of crime?
“Has the Government granted any funding towards this joint-venture, and if so, how much exactly?”
O’Neill responded that executives of several rice companies in the country had sought meetings with him on the new rice quota proposed by Government.
“I have always stated very clearly that there must be a competitive process,” he said.
“We are not trying to create monopoly for any company or any person.
“Our desire is to grow rice and be self-sufficient, and have food security for our country.
“Trukai is the biggest rice importer in PNG, and of course, they import most of their rice from Australia.
“But they do not produce enough rice in Australia to supply the PNG market.
“That is why they import from Asia to meet the shortfall, which is then repacked and sold in Papua New Guinea.
“I am also aware that Trukai has been involved in some experiment rice-growing in the country, but I have put it very specifically to them that we have had enough of experimenting, we want them to grow rice in Papua New Guinea.
“What we want to do is have large-scale commercially-viable rice-growing in various parts of the country that is able to meet our demand.
“We don’t have much choice but we must grow rice by ourselves in the country.”
O’Neill said the quota system was being managed by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock and “I have no knowledge that 80 per cent of the quota system has been awarded”.
“The quota system is only based on how much rice you grow in the country.
“If you do not grow one acre of rice, you will not get a quota system.
“If you do not invest money into the industry in this country, you will not get a quota system
“You must invest in the industry before you get a quota.
“It must be a level and fair playing field.”