ICCC: High prices to remain

 By VERONICA FRANCIS

PNG will continue to feel the pinch of increased food prices, the Independent Consumer Competition Commission (ICCC) said last week as representatives of the world’s largest economies met in Paris to discuss escalating prices of food around the world.

Papua New Guinea is particularly susceptible, the ICCC’s Dr Billy Manoka told The National, as it is a net importer of many food products including its staple – rice and flour.

Manoka admitted that even though international prices had stabilised somewhat, PNG’s domestic prices were continuing to increase because of certain associated factors such as the high cost of doing business in PNG. 

He said ICCC monitors the rice and wheat prices but still needed to do more, adding that since PNG imported most of its rice, the price was determined by world demand and pricing factors.

The United States representative to the United Nations’ Agencies for Food and Agriculture (UNAFA) ambassador Ertharin Cousin in a telephone press conference last Friday with The National said the increase in international food prices generally had a potential to impact PNG directly or indirectly.

She said food security should be a priority in all countries and it was an initiative of UNAFA to make sure there was sufficient and quality food in those countries that need it.  

The National learnt that ICCC will be holding a series of meetings to find out more on the continued increase on domestic food prices in PNG and come up with a way forward.