Ox & Palm ban

Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru this afternoon confirmed that in a letter dated September 5 to Fiji’s Trade and Tourism Minister Faiyaz Siddiq Koya.

Minister Maru thanked Minister Koya for his commitment to send Fiji’s Biosecurity Authority executive chair Xavier Riyaz Khan and Fiji’s Trade Commissioner to PNG, Navitalai Tuivuniwai to Papua New Guinea to meet their PNG counterparts.

Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru told Parliament today that there is no biosecurity risk with the exportation of Ox & Palm as claimed by Fiji.

He said failure by Fiji to lift the ban might lead to some of the Fiji products imported to the country being shelved.

He said he had written a letter which will be delivered tomorrow to the Fiji government regarding the issues.

This was after the National Agriculture Quarantine & Inspection Authority (NAQIA) of Papua New Guinea wrote to PNG’s Trade Commerce & Industry Minister, Richard Maru advising him that as far as the Authority is concerned, Ox & Palm does not possess any bio-security risk to Fiji as claimed by Biosecurity Authority of Fiji (BAF) and its Trade Minister.

NAQIA revealed that Fiji does not have in place an established biosecurity pathway (or import protocol) for PNG’s Ox & Palm and that there is no real biosecurity threat to Fiji.