Govt urged to meet international biosecurity requirement

ENVIRONMENT, Conservation and Climate Change Minister Wera Mori wants the Government to meet the international biosecurity requirements to export taro to international markets.
“We need to meet the international quarantine requirements to export our taro, bananas and other food crops to Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“Apart from producing food crops to meet our domestic needs, we also need to look at options to export overseas.”
Mori made the comments during a debate in Parliament on Friday.
Mori said when he was Commerce and Industry Minister in 2018, he had spoken of the need to put biosecurity protocols in place.
He said this would allow the country to export agricultural produce such as taro, bananas and yams.
“Unfortunately, that (biosecurity protocols) has not been established. “We are losing millions of kina that we could have generated.
“Another thing is to be consistent in supplying food crops.”