An eye on rice
Trukai Industries is pushing ahead with rice growing in the Morobe region.
Greg Worthington-Eyre, chief executive of Trukai Industries, says there are significant opportunities for rice growing in the Morobe region.
“We have done a lot of soil testing looking for a location,” he says. “We have narrowed it down to a few places and have determined
that 14 per cent of the land mass is suitable for rice development.”
Most of the suitable land for rice, which requires a clay-based soil structure, already has had oil palm on it, for many decades in some cases, he says.
The company has substantially improved its yields at its 280-hectare project at Umi in the Markham Valley.
“We nailed it down to Morobe Province at a place called Ube, towards Goroka. We found a village prepared to work with us to establish the first commercial rice production.”
Geographical proximity to markets remains an issue.
“You couldn’t just do it (rice growing) anywhere because once you grow it, what do you do with it?”
In 2016, says WorthingtonEyre, Trukai launched Ube as the first commercial site for rice development in PNG, planting 280 hectares. In the first harvest, in 2018, the yield was not as good as hoped. “We had problems with pest management – a little beast called brown hopper.”
Worthington-Eyre says the company has substantially improved its yields at its 280-hectare project at Umi in the Markham Valley.
Yields on the recent crop, he says, were up between 3.2 and 3.4 times that of last year.
Port handling charges in PNG have risen sharply, he says.
“When people talk about moving product around the country, and even to import or export, you have got to get through some of the highest charges in the world for port management facilities – which I think dilutes value and dilutes the opportunity.
“It is fantastic if you have $US5 million dollars in your container but if it is less than $US100,000 you have to question whether it is worth pursuing.”
Developing good relationships with the landowners represents another challenge. Worthington-Eyre says one of the major constraints the company faces is dealing with land titles.
“When you have villages that have been owned under customary title and then all of a sudden something happens with that land, then all and sundry come out of the woodwork looking for a slice of the cherry.
“That often forces land disputes and everything then gets locked up in the court system.”
Worthington-Eyre says the company comes in and pays for everything: seed, infrastructure, herbicides, pesticides, land preparation and harvesting.