Source: Post Courier

By OSEAH PHILEMON Lae Bureau Chief

RURAL village farmers in Papua New Guinea struggling to market their fruits and vegetables and other garden produce have been dealt a severe blow in the 2013 national budget.

A request to the Government for K10 million for the construction of a fresh produce whole sale market (warehouse and cooling facilities) in Port Moresby to assist farmers to store and sell fruits and vegetables produced locally has been rejected.
It is not in the 2013 budget.

The Government-owned Fresh Produce Development Agency which provides technical advise to farmers about producing the best quality fruits and vegetables made the submission to the Government for inclusion in the 2013 budget. However, its general manager Greg Liripu said the submission was not considered. Mr Liripu said the agency had 75-hectare piece of land at 8-Mile in Port Moresby earmarked for the whole sale market. He said last year the then Agriculture Minister Sir Puka Temu allocated the agency K2 million to prepare the land for the construction to begin.

The project will now have to wait until funds become available. The fresh produce whole sale market would have enabled the farmers to store and sell tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables mainly from the highlands where farmers continue to struggle to sell their produce in the domestic markets in main centres around PNG.

Farmers face serious problems with terrible roads and bridges, high airfreight costs, no cooling facilities and unreliable road transport to bring their fresh produce to the markets on time.

Mr Liripu calls it “ineffective value chain” which prevents farmers from getting their produce to the market with minimum delay. He said by the time the produce reached the market the farmer had already lost 40 percent of the quality and quantity of the produce.
Mr Liripu said PNG farmers produced enough vegetables and fruits for the local market but “ineffective value chain” was the main obstacle affecting the quality of their pdoduce.

He said with bad roads and bridges, unreliable transport network, no dedicated road and air transport compounded by lack of cooling systems and warehouse to keep the fresh fruits and vegetables immediately after harvest and on the way to the market - the local produce deteriorate long before they reach the consumer.

Meanwhile, Daulo MP Ron Ganarafo has called on the Government to help local farmers who are struggling to make a living from selling their fruits and vegetables against stiff competition from imported fruits and vegetables.

Mr Ganarafo said local fruits and vegetable producers were really suffering because there was no protection for the local industry against overseas imports. His comments come at the back of concerns expressed by companies in the manufacturing sector about cheap imports competiting against locally-made products and threatening jobs held by thousands of Papua ew Guinean workers in the private sector. Mr Ganarafo said local fruits and vegetables were transported from as far away as Southern Highlands.