Ayan, exporter na tayo ng rice. 1,160 kilos nga lang na seeds o palay (hindi polished rice in tons) hehehe. The Philippines’ export of 1,160 kilos of hybrid rice seeds to private firm Calmwind Pty. Ltd. (CLP) had arrived in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and is seen as a start of a long-haul partnership with a huge potential for expansion. The volume was shipped by SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC) last July 21 and had already arrived in PNG. “This export has a huge prospect for growth because rice is the staple in Papua New Guinea. Easily if they adopt it, it will boost their economy,” said according to Dona T. Lim, SLAC assistant vice president-supply chain. The exported volume will cover planting in a pilot area of 40 hectares in Gabadi, also a name for a people group in PNG. It is considered a trial planting since PNG farmers had hardly planted rice despite the availability of land and water sources. It imports a significant volume of 300,000 metric tons of rice yearly from Australia. PNG’s rice imports is now seen to open up opportunities for private companies like importer CLP to engage in a profitable rice venture. The rice business in PNG is very attractive as rice price at retail is around P100 per kilo, double that in the Philippines. “As soon as farmers see the yield, they would be delighted that it only needs P50,000 in production cost, and profit is big. Entrepreneurs will jump into it,” said Lim. Filipino farmers earn a net income of P100,000 to P200,000 per hectare from hybrid rice. SLAC Chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong said exports like this opens opportunities for the Philippines to extend its pioneering technology on hybrid rice to help developing countries with less developed rice technology. It is advantageous that PNG farmers will learn planting rice using the hybrid rice technology. Technicians to be deployed by SLAC will aid New Guinean farmers. The shipment was a combination of SL-8H, SL-7H (Jasponica Dona Maria premium rice), and SL-9H (Miponica). Seeding rate is at 30 kilos per hectare. The absence of irrigation similar to many areas in the Philippines compels use of a technology called “dry seeding.” Overhead sprinklers will be used to irrigate the farm. An expansion to commercial production of hybrid rice in PNG is highly prospective. This is because the government of PNG has been promoting investments through its Investment Promotion Authority. “The Papua New Guinea government believes that the key to economic growth is the development of private sector investment both domestically and abroad. (To) attract investment, it must put in place a policy framework which will bring about that development,” according to IPA. “Government policies encourage the development of PNG’s non-mining sectors including manufacturing, renewable resources such as agriculture and fisheries.” PNG is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Its imports come from Australia, Japan, United States, Singapore, New Zealand, United Kingdom, China and Hong Kong. While PNG has export commodities coffee, cocoa, coconut (copra), oil palm and kernel, rice is largely an untapped crop. PNG has tracts of land for rice reaching to 300,000 hectares that may be a potential expansion area. The Philippine export was supported by PNG’s former minister of agriculture, Roy Ebarra, as earlier facilitated by Philippine Ambassador to PNG Bienvenido V. Tejano. Tejano earlier planted hybrid rice in PNG. He endorsed it after getting a good yield. The Philippines can actually use PNG as an import source for rice since the country still imports a huge volume of rice at more than 500,000 MT. “PNG may become our own source of rice because it has a huge area for planting rice. They thought before they could not plant rice in their land. But a Filipino has demonstrated planting rice is possible,” said Dr. Frisco M. Malabanan, SLAC rice consultant.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 08:59:00 +0000
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