Logistics affecting supply of fresh produce

By CLARISSA MOI
LOGISTICAL issues have been a challenge for the City Pharmacy Ltd Group (CPL), however, the group strives to maintain the supply of fresh produce in their Stop and Shop outlets across Port Moresby.
Group chief executive officer Navin Raju told The National that it took two weeks for fresh produce from other provinces such as Bougainville to reach Port Moresby.
“Logistics issues gives us a lot of challenge but at the end of the day, we still maintain supply,” he said.
“We still have supply on the shelves for our customers. There’s a lot hard work behind all these. Some of the farmers travel all night just to get the produce to us the next day.
“But all the hard work is worthwhile.”
Raju said as way a of celebrating and acknowledging the hard work behind all the fresh produce that the group gets, it staged a two-week root festival which was launched on Saturday at the Stop and Shop Waigani Central branch.
He added that partnership with local farmers went beyond just partnering with the farmers to supply fresh produce but also helped them to open bank accounts and save for their children’s school fees.
“One of the problems we identified is that farmers come and go and we face supply issues,” Raju said.
“We have to constantly keep working with our farmers in order to maintain supply.
“And there’s lots of ways that we’re helping our farmers. We also found out that farmers are not paying their staff really well and we told them that they should make sure their staff are paid well.
“So in a way, they must not only look at the quality of the products but also the people behind the quality products.”