No freight subsidy in Budget: Minister

AGRICULTURE and Livestock Minister John Simon says there is no freight subsidy allocated in the 2020 National Budget to assist farmers.
Simon told Parliament on Tuesday that he had spoken to National Planning and Monitoring Minister Sam Basil to consider including a freight subsidy in a Supplementary Budget.
He said a freight subsidy used to exist before 2019 parked with commodities such as cocoa and coffee.
“There is no allocation for that in this year’s budget, but I will be talking to those in charge,” he said.
“We will try our best to assist as much as we can.”
Simon also called on the Government to build more roads in remote areas.
“The Connect Papua New Guinea (PNG) programme which focuses on connecting provinces should also focus on connecting rural areas to towns in provinces,” he said.
“Most of the cash crops are grown in rural areas but people do not have roads to access the market.”
Middle Ramu MP Johnny Alonk questioned what the Government was doing to assist coffee farmers in rural areas to bring their produce to market.
Alonk said the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) had been assisting farmers in 2015 but had stopped.
“I haven’t seen anything like that happening in my district anymore,” he said.
“I want to know what is really happening which has caused CIC to stop assisting farmers.
“Do they have a board and officers responsible for that?”