Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Tommy Tomscoll

Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Tommy Tomscoll, said OPIC belonged to the oil palm growers and will relocate it if necessary.

He was responding to West New Britain Governor, Sasindran Muthuvel, who asked why the OPIC headquarters was in Port Moresby when his province was the largest oil palm producer in the country.

He asked for the headquarters to be relocated to Kimbe so the office can service its true purpose.

Tomscol said this could be done.

Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Tommy Tomscoll in a media statement said the declaration has taken effect as of Aug 24, through the National Gazette number G593.

He said Ramu Agri Ltd (RAIL) reported the occurrence of sugar smut at their commercial sugarcane production fields to NAQIA on Aug 2 and sought assistance to confirm the detection of the disease.

“They also assist in implementing quarantine measures as in the emergency respond plan for sugar cane smut,” says Tomscoll.

The project, at the moment, has gone back to a government rice committee to negotiate issues of allocations of the import quota.

The meeting was held last week and Tomscoll is yet to be briefed on the outcome.

Tomscoll said there are many issues that they’ll have to consider before the project can commence operations.

The project is subject to all social mapping, land marking and identifications of landowners.

“We cannot just let companies walk in without social mapping, identifying who the landowners are and sorting out the beneficiaries of the project.