Expect local lamb soon

The National Main Stories

By ALPHONSE BARIASI
MEAT consumers can expect the first fresh local lamb cuts from animals bred by a venture spearheaded by BNG Trading and its partners in the Sogeri Plateau in Central in a matter of months.
BNG Trading, which has been in the food import and distribution business in the country for the past 100 years, has embarked on the K7.2-million PNG Protein Park in partnership with the Pacific Balance Fund Agro Ltd.
They are raising a breed of sheep originally called Fiji Fantastic but now rebranded as Toea Kina, to address the shortfall in locally-produced red meat.
This is the first commercial lamb production system in PNG with a targeted 1,800 breeding ewes in a feeding hub in elevated sheds.
In November 30 goats, the 139 ewes (female sheep), 10 pure bred meat master lamb (rams) were flown in on Air Nauru from Toowomba in Queensland, Australia.
Ralph Yambu, the project liaison officer and the man in charge of the sheep breeding shed at Koitaki, is preparing the animals for breeding.
When the ewes reach about 40kg, they will mate with the rams, Yamb said.
Yambu, a self-confessed “cattle man”, is now learning fast to be a “sheep man”, in charge of the breeding programme at Koitaki.
The Sepik man, who is the Mamose livestock adviser, has been in charge of sheep and goat breeding at the Koitaki “sheep hotel” since the animals arrived in November last year.
There are also plans for an out-grower programme in which PNG Protein Park will supply lamb to locals to grow. When they are ready for slaughtering, the company will buy them from the villagers, according to PNG Trading executive manager Kevin Wright.
The company will establish an abattoir or slaughter house in Gerehu, National Capital District, to prepare the meat for supply to the local market.
“Sheep meat is popular in PNG, but it comes at a high price and this means that families are restricted to cheaper cuts of meat,” said Jerry Singirok, a retired army general and a unit holder of the Pacific Balance Fund, which is a venture partner of the PNG Protein Park.
In commending BNG Trading for the project initiative, Singirok told journalists visiting the Koitaki sheep breeding farm yesterday that this was an important project to address food security in the country.

  • Read more about the PNG Protein Park in the Weekender on Friday.