Horticulture a multi-million kina industry, says official

THE market value for fresh produce in Port Moresby alone is around K350 million to K400 million annually, general manager for Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) Mark Worinu says.
Worinu said yesterday that fresh produce, or the horticulture industry, is a multimillion kina industry which Papua New Guinea needs to take full interest and seriously consider as a business.
He said there was very huge market available for fresh produce in the country.
“Lae is around K250 million to K300 million and we have market demands in other urban centres around the country and also in the mining and oil and gas sector and industries,” he said.
“That is a very massive market which Papua New Guineans should seriously consider to tap into and benefit.”
He said the problem we have apart from government providing enabling infrastructure, and improving market access and supply chain management, our people need to change their mindset on how they see farming and agriculture.
He said many Papua New Guineans see farming and agriculture as a subsistence way of living and that mentality is absolutely wrong and deprives many people of the opportunity to be rich and wealthy people in the country.
“Every year, companies continue to import foods and vegetables that are produce locally from overseas because they cannot risk their business relying on local farmers to supply as there is no consistency in the volume of supply by our local farmers,” Worinu said.