Shortage of supply causes price to hike

Food is in high demand in Port Moresby.
The supply of organically grown food and processed food are struggling to meet the high demand, thus causing food price to hike sharply.
In 2009, the demand for fresh produce and other processed food in Port Moresby was more than 148,000 tonnes but only 109,000 tonnes reached the city.
Last year, the demand went up to 165,000 tonnes.
NCD Mountain Gardeners supplied 57,000 tonnes while centres like Mt Hagen, Chimbu and others supplied 48,000 tonnes of fresh produce and processed food from overseas 29,000 tonnes.
Central, the supposed food bowl of Port Moresby, supplied about 20,000 tonnes from 18,000 tonnes a year earlier.
NCD has some 800,000 mouths to feed and the number is increasing by 7% annually.
Demand for food will continue to rise.
NCD needs a food bowl that can supply at least 100,000 tonnes of garden food annually.
Central province is sleeping giant that has a big land mass like Morobe.
But not many people are cultivating their land to meet the demand in NCD. 
I call on the people from Central to go into large-scale farming.
This is an opportunity they must grab with both hands.
If Central can produce more than 120,000 tonnes of food annually, this will help to bring down the price of garden food.
I visit Lae often and the price of garden and processed food was high like Port Moresby between 2002 and 2007.
Since then, Morobeans started to cultivate their land and with constant supply from the highlands provinces, the price of garden produce have dropped significantly and stabilised. 
For example, a bundle of six huge taros costs K10 whereas in Port Moresby a single taro costs K10 or K15. 
Most store foods on the shelves are almost expired as not many people go there nowadays.
This left the big supermarkets with no choice but to reduce their food prices to attract customers.
With inflation causing prices of food and services to rise, more must be done to bring down the cost of living.
And one of the ways is to cultivate the land and increase garden food production.
Central province must wake up from its slumber as there is good money to be made by producing and supplying NCD with 120,000 tonnes or more of garden produce.

Blake Bamba
Port Moresby