New rice project eyes 20-yr shelter

By YEHIURA HRIEHWAZI
A PORT Moresby-based businesswoman, EleanaTjandranegara of Naima Agro-Industry Ltd, is proposing an ambitious rice project in the Central province and is seeking sole distributorship of the product in PNG with a 20-year tariff protection.
The proposal is now with the Department of Agriculture for comments.
A spokesman from the Agriculture ministry Moale Rivu recently confirmed seeing copy of the proposal and referred The National newspaper to Agriculture secretary Anton Benjamin for further comments.
Benjamin could not be reached for comments yesterday.
The proposal, if approved by government, is likely to put 600-plus workers of PNG’s main rice supplier Trukai Rice out of work and drive the price of rice into astronomical levels.
Trukai slashed the price of rice by 18% over a month ago because of good rice harvests in Australia and the appreciation in the kina against the Australian dollar. 
On the up-side is the promise made by the rice project’s promoters that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rice will be grown, with roads, wharves, an airport and other infrastructure investments to enrich the lives of the village people and make this country an exporting rice-bowl for the region.
However, on the down side, landowners could see their land locked up for 99 years, rice prices would rise dramatically, and it would become illegal for any other PNG growers to sell their rice in any commercial quantity.
Agriculture Minister Sir Puka Temu and Foreign Affairs Minister Ano Pala have visited the Bereina area of the Central province in recent weeks to promote the project among the local people.
Under the proposal, land would be acquired by Naima under the special agriculture and business lease (SABL) for 99 years where villagers would surrender their tra­-
ditional fishing and gardening rights over their land to the company.
The proposal wanted Naima to be the only permitted commercial grower for all the regions of PNG, for a period of 20 years. 
They are also asking for heavy tariffs to be imposed on all rice imported by any company other than Naima.
Industry sources told The National last night that Naima apparently had no previous experience in any kind of agriculture and if it found that it was unable to import the 230,000 tonnes of rice currently supplied to the PNG.
It could simply import all the rice it needed to sell to PNG and whatever
price it chose, source said.
It is understood that the matter had gone before the  O’Neill-Namah cabinet and attracted some heated debate regarding the monopoly and tariff protection clauses of the Central rice project.
Trukai Rice could not offer an official comment yesterday but it was understood that its management were disappointed with the government for entertaining the proposal, especially in relation to Naima’s request for high tariff protection for 20 years.