Cheap chicken imports hurt local farmers

By GYNNIE KERO
PAPUA New Guinea’s growing poultry industry is being affected by cheap, imported chicken, the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council’s (CIMC) agriculture sectoral committee meeting at IPA Haus in Port Moresby was told yesterday.
PNG Poultry Industry Association (PIA) president Stanley Leahy said this also posted the threat of diseases.
He said 3,000 tonnes of uncooked poultry products were imported annually by PNG, mostly for the PNG LNG project.“Papua New Guinea has almost 600,000 small holder poultry producers, yet, the country depends on cheap chicken meat from Australia,” Leahy said.
“The uncooked Australian poultry products are flooding the country’s markets and are a risk to the domestic industry.“Each week, 100,000 meat chickens are imported and the local industry is losing the same number through denied sales.
“The importation of uncooked chicken at cheap prices started a few years ago and is continuing, despite concerns raised by the industry and the PNG PIA about diseases and the threats to the local industry.”
Meanwhile, deteriorating road conditions in the country are a major concern for smallholder palm oil growers, according to Oil Palm Industry Corporation’s (OPIC) acting general secretary Leslie Wungen.
He said the industry need upgraded and well-maintained roads for transporting fresh fruit bunches (FFB) to mills.Currently, Wungen said, smaller holder growers were making huge losses as no one was interested in buying their FFB after three days.
“Industry needs good roads to move the FFB,” he said.
“If not, within three days, it’s a waste and loss for the growers.”
There are five oil palm projects in four provinces with more than 200,000 small holder growers nationwide.