Poultry stockfeed woes eased

By CLARISSA MOI
THE short supply of poultry stockfeed in Port Moresby has been addressed, however transportation still remains a challenge.
Farmers and Settlers Association Inc President Wilson Thompson said production of stockfeed was stabilised, but suppliers needed to get their stocks out to the wholesalers.
Farmset Ltd southern region manager Kevin Zimmerman, while providing an update on the shortage of supply, said they had a number of stockfeed containers that had arrived from Lae and all had been sold out.
“We do have two containers in Lae which were not picked up by the transport company and missed the ship,” he said.
“This will result in shortage of stock once again.”
Zimmerman told The National last week that delays in shipment affected the supply as the feed was produced in Lae and shipped to the nation’s capital.
The country has three major suppliers: Goodman Fielder PNG (GFPNG), Trukai Industries and Mainland Holdings Ltd through its chicken business New Guinea Tablebirds (NGBT).
A Trukai spokesperson said the company had stopped selling stockfeed and was no longer a distributor.
Farmset has a smaller operation serving its own stores.
Thompson said in the last 12 months, Trukai and NGTB had stopped production leaving Goodman Fielder the sole supplier.
He said that has strained Goodman Fielder’s factory as it worked to increase production to meet the demand.
Thompson said NGTB was getting back its production of stockfeed which would alleviate the shortage.
Attempts to get comment from Mainland Holdings were unsuccessful.
Goodman Fielders (PNG) general manager Manish Randev said the company continued to manufacture poultry stockfeed locally and was supplemented with imports to meet the demand.
He told The National last week that the industry had experienced an increase in demand.
Randev said this followed a relatively quiet first six months of 2021, due to the shortage of day-old chickens within the market which resulted in GFPNG re-aligning its production plans.
He noted that the company had in place mechanisms to address the challenges faced with supply and demand.
Randev said they worked with their customers to ensure business needs were met and local farmers were getting their supplies.