Rice

The Governor for Madang province, Ramsey Pariwa, warmly welcomed the delegation on Sunday, April 19 and on the following day hosted them at his office at Sir Bato Bultin Provincial Government office where a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to formalize the arrangement.

The delegation’s team leader and spokesperson, Ibu Susie Waingal expressed their willingness to cooperate with Madang in a sister-province relationship or cooperation.

The company announced the milestone in a media conference on February 11^th that as part of the celebrations, promotions will be run in the coming months.

To mark the half century the company also announced a new agreement with local landowners in Morobe Province to venture into commercial rice farming.

Since its inception in February 17^th 1970 as Ricegrowers – Australia and then changing to Trukai Industries Limited in 1994, the company has grown as the leading food brand in PNG.

This will be the second commercial harvest as the rice company continues to invest in local rice production.

The first harvest was completed last year, milled and packed in Lae, then distributed as Trukai Hamamas Rice, signifying a new dawn for a domestic commercial rice production for Trukai and PNG.

The rain fed crop is planted over 275 hectares and is estimated to produce over 1,000 tons of rice when harvested. The rice is 100 percent locally made from planting through to harvesting, milling and packaging.

This follows an MoU Agricultural Cooperation signing between the two countries on Friday (November 16^th) at the PAU rice demo farm.

The MoU paves way for the two countries to move forward in commercial rice production, with technical assistance to come from the Philippines.

Governor Bird said the interest of rice farming and production in his province is quite extensive and wants to capture that opportunity and to develop it jointly with the Filipinos.

This move is aimed at reducing the cost of rice in PNG.

Speaking at the end of an Official State Visit to the Republic of the Philippines, O’Neill said that a Memorandum of Understanding on agricultural cooperation has been signed that will lead to extensive rice cultivation.

PM O’Neill said understanding has been reached with the Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, and his Government to cooperate in the production of rice for the benefit of both countries.

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel said the Government is looking for alternative ways to reduce such bigger imports within the 100 Days Economic Stimulus Plan.

The 100-day plan has the primary goals of demonstrating government pro-activity in ensuring sound macroeconomic and fiscal management, restoring confidence, generating investment and moving towards greater economic self-reliance.

Abel said there are other alternatives apart from rice that people could consider and grow in the country.

It depends on the kind of rice you choose.

White rice is considered a nutritionally inferior "refined grain" because its bran and germ are removed during the milling process, which strips away B vitamins, iron and fiber. Though white rice is typically enriched with iron and B vitamins, fiber is not added back.

Brown rice is the same thing as white rice but is a "whole grain," because only its inedible outer husk is removed. Since brown rice retains its bran and germ, it's a better source of antioxidants, vitamin E and fiber.

With the cooperation of the Chingwam Rice Growers Cooperative, Trukai will be establishing a 500-hectare rice plantation near Rangiampum initially for a rain fed crop to be established in 2017.

This is in addition to the existing 80-hectare site already producing rice for the cooperative, under the management of Trukai’s rice development team.

This site will be progressively expanded possibly up to 1,500-2,000 hectares over a number of seasons, although this will be subject to relevant agreements and climatic and soil evaluations.

Goods like rice, bread, lamb flaps, cartons of soft drinks and ham are selling fast at the shops, with just two days left before Christmas.

Loop PNG visited RH Hypermart, Stop N Shop, Brian Bell and TST Supermarket and witnessed a flood of shoppers in long queues at counters.

Almost all food stuff are on specials as well as white goods, toys and Christmas decorations.

Loop PNG witnessed 100 bags of 10kg rice get sold out within a minute!

The customers had to wait in line to collect the rice bags straight from the container at the back of the shop.

In Trukai Industries, it was clear that one company above all others in PNG represented what the FOA is asking of institutions related to the farming and agriculture sector in developing nations.

Trukai’s progressive programs aimed at developing local capacity to grow rice in PNG parallels with one of the central messages from the FOA to global companies: “Local institutions need to develop capacities and motivate men and women farmers.”