Downstream processing vital in creating jobs, helps SMEs

DOWNSTREAM processing creates added value, generates job and small to medium enterprises spin-offs, says Innovative Agro Industries (IAI) executive director Ilan Weiss.
Weiss said downstream processing ensured capacity building and food security in the agriculture and food space in times of disaster.
“We received a renewed wake-up call in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“Innovative Agro Industry’s corporates mission is to deliver, to the greatest extent possible, downstream processing in the PNG agriculture and food sector.
“For IAI, this is not merely a talking point or mere advocacy.
“This is what we do, day in and day out.
“We focus our investments, resources and day to day activities on building value and supply chains that enable downstream processing, whether it be by producing dairy products from grass-to-glass including field crops to feed the livestock (engaging small holder farmers to grow the crops) and on to livestock care and management and ending all the way down in processing the final products (such as milk, yoghurt and ice-cream).
“The same is true for our KUK chips, a process that begins in the smallholder farmer in the Highlands growing potatoes and kaukau (sweet potatoes) and ends in a state of the art processing centre that down streams the harvested crops through a unique individual quick freezing facility to a final premium product (frozen fries).
“Same is also true for our Tari-Piwa poultry farm, the new Sepik Fresh facilities and our other activities around the country.”