Trade officials in Lae

By JUNIOR UKAHA
A GROUP of government officials from Fiji and Papua New Guinea yesterday visited Trukai Industries production plant in Lae to conduct an import risk assessment on its rice produce.
They are assessing the rice produced by Trukai and biscuits produced by the Lae Biscuit Company.
The Fiji team comprises Fiji Trade Commissioner to PNG Navitalai Tuivuniwai, Fiji High Commission first secretary Vilitati Mataitini, Nilesh Chand and Ronald Prasad from the Fiji Biosecurity Authority.
The PNG government team included Dr Amanda Mararuai, the senior technical officer with the National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority, Benjamin Zairo, the technical officer with National Institute of Standard and Industrial Technology, Raphael Uranguwai, the director of trade development and promotion with the Department of Commerce, Trade and Industry, plus Lae-based NAQIA officials.
Trukai Industries Limited chief executive officer Greg Worthington-Eyre received the delegation and briefed them on the operation.
General manager (Operations) Dean Fraser took them on a tour of the rice production plant.
Uranguwai told The National that the visit to the factory was to allow the team from Fiji to see first-hand how Trukai produced its rice.
“The purpose of this visit is to have the team from Fiji biosecurity who have been tasked by their government to come and look at the processing of the three commodity products (corned beef, rice and biscuit) and collect the necessary documentation and provide the report so that their government can give the clearance to import,” Uranguwai said.
It followed a trade row between the two countries over the acceptance of certain PNG products by Fiji. The Fiji officials met Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru and officials from NAQIA, NISIT, Foreign Affairs and Trade last Friday.
Uranguwai said the team visited Ox and Palm manufacturer Hugo Canning at 16-Mile outside Port Moresby on Monday.
“They will consult with the Trukai management to get relevant documentation so that if there is any need for them to import our rice, Naqia will do the verification but send the documents to them and they can verify because they have the same documents,” he said.