Wantok Produce Managing Director, Dr. Pulotu Lautofa McCarthy is calling on the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to seriously give priority to direct flights between PNG and New Zealand.
Dr. McCarthy made this call when the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru met with PNG diaspora and students in Auckland on Tuesday 23 April 2024.
Wantok Produce in partnership with the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) Enterprise Limited exported first 13 tons of frozen taro to New Zealand last month.
“This is the first time that PNG has exported its taro into the New Zealand market after 50 years of trying,” said Minister Maru.
Dr. McCarthy who is originally from Samoa but calls himself ‘a Papua New Guinean by heart’ shared his story on why he decided to go into the business of exporting PNG taro to New Zealand.
“I have lived in PNG since I first arrived in 1970s to study medicine under an Australian scholarship. My wife Lydia and I made the toughest decision to move to New Zealand to be close to our children who were all studying in New Zealand when COVID struck in 2019. Whilst in New Zealand, one of the things that we really missed was PNG local food. There were no PNG products in New Zealand except for coffee which was repacked under different brands with no acknowledgment or traceability to the origin. That is why we ventured into exporting PNG taro to New Zealand to meet the needs of the Papua New Guineans living there. Our taro is packaged as ‘Wantok Frozen Taro’ with the label ‘Product of Papua New Guinea’,” said Dr. McCarthy.
Dr. McCarthy further stated, “Our taro taste better than taros from anywhere in the world. We can also export yams, sweet potatoes, cassavas, bananas, coffee, and other products targeting the 400, 000 Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand. We have unlimited market and with the taste of our taro now becoming a hot cake we have the potential to do more, but we cannot do so without direct flights between our two countries. I am calling on the PNG Government to seriously give priority to direct flights between PNG and New Zealand because this will enable us to export more of our products into New Zealand market.”