By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
POULTRY prices are primarily driven by the cost of stock feed and not from shortages of imported poultry product, Zenag Chicken Farm General Manager Stanley Leahy says.
“And so, addressing high costs in the supply chain shipping stevedoring, wharfage would help reduce the cost of production in PNG,” Leahy said.
Mr Leahy said this after National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority (NAQIA) banned imported poultry products from Asia and Australia.
Critics have claimed that this will lead to an increase in prices for poultry products due to limited supply of poultry products due to the ban.
“All Domestic poultry producers are capable of producing poultry products to replace imported poultry products. All major commercial poultry producers operate with excess production capacity and will meet domestic demand,” Mr Leahy said.
He also welcomed banning of imported poultry products.
“We are proud of our government’s commitment to develop PNG’s livestock sector. The strengthening of PNG’s biosecurity protocols in line with international best practice is applauded by PNG poultry producers.
The policy is based on science and justified to protect PNGs biosecurity, ensuring PNG poultry farmers are protected from unacceptable disease risks. Australia, Fiji and New Zealand already enforce the same poultry import policy and have done so for many years,” he said.
Meanwhile, NAQIA Managing Director Joel Alu has issued the ban on the import of poultry and is effective as of January 6th 2023.
“As a government directive to the general public and importers of Chicken and poultry products to refrain from the importation of fresh, frozen, and chilled chicken and poultry products including eggs from all sources except from New Zealand. The Poultry Industry Association (PIA) has raised concerns to the Government through the Minister of Agriculture of biosecurity risks associated with fresh, frozen and chilled chicken and chicken products imports from Australia and Asia.
The general public including importers and exporters are thereby informed that effective as of 06th January, 2023, NAQIA will cease issuance of import permit to import fresh, frozen and chilled chicken products from all sources except New Zealand. NAQIA will only issue import permit to import fresh, frozen and chilled chicken from New Zealand and not from any other sources,” he said.
