PAPUA NEW GUINEA AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY LAGS

PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

PAPUA NEW GUINEA AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY LAGS
Government not helping farmers plant new crops

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, April 14, 2008) – The agriculture sector in Papua New Guinea is still lagging despite its beefing up the national coffers, a Port Moresby seminar has been told.

Gae Kauzi from the Bank of Papua New Guinea said that while the commodities boom had helped to boost the national economy, the story was different especially in the rural sectors.

In his commentary to the paper presented earlier at the Papua New Guinea Update seminar at the University of PNG on Friday, Mr Kauzi said the story in the agriculture sector "was not good".

He said the Government was not helping farmers to replant crops such as cocoa and coffee so that PNG would continue to supply the world markets.

Mr Kauzi said the 6.2 per cent growth in the agriculture sector was not from new plantings but rather from old plantations that had crops that were growing out.

He said there was decline in export performance volume wise with the exception of oil palm and rubber.

"The real challenge is on the application of the funds held in trust accounts," Mr Kauzi said. "Will the Government put it to good use or repeat the mistakes of the past?"

But he said the Government was doing well by using windfall gains to retire debts.

Mr Kauzi also said that the de-regulation of the former Copra Marketing Board had lowered copra production in the country after coconut growing provinces such as Central and Gulf provinces ceased producing coconut.

He said that while PNG had done well in the macro economic arena, the country should do a lot more in its micro-economic area such as addressing law and order and improving infrastructure such as roads.

"There is no connection between micro and macro arenas," he said.

Earlier on during the seminar, Australian academic Bob Warner painted a "rosy" picture of the PNG economy saying that PNG would do even better as commodity prices remained high.

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