CHICKEN SUPPLY TO PORT MORESBY CITY RESUMES

Customers in Port Moresby city experienced a shortage in the supply of chicken in shops in the past week, but this is now a thing of the past with a shipload of frozen chickens arriving from Lae city on Tuesday.

This Minister for Agriculture, John Boito had to clarify this in a media conference today at the Department of Agriculture office in Port Moresby city after a meeting with his team and a team from the National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA). He stated that the issue was not the production of the poultry product, but the shipment in this particular case.

“It’s not the supply; the supply is okay. It’s just that we had the breakdown of the vessel, and a delay for one week. That’s why the supply in the city (Port Moresby) was short.

The meeting today also called for a closer inspection on the supply and production of chicken and other poultry products to device a solution to address such cases in the future.

Nevertheless, the minister urged consumers in Port Moresby city not to worry anymore as the shipment has arrived.

“40 containers of frozen chickens have arrived in the city, about 345, 500 chickens,” he proudly stated.

One container holds about 960 cartons of chickens, which in total would contain 8, 560 individual frozen chicken in just one container.

“On behalf of the Department of Agriculture, my (Department) Secretary and the poultry industry, we like to apologize to our valued customers and clients in the city.”

Meanwhile, Minister Boito said they will be visiting the productions in Lae city as a way forward to discover ways forward to avoiding such a situation from repeating.

“I am taking a trip with a team from NAQIA, the Secretary and poultry industry to Lae tomorrow morning to physically go and visit Zenag and New Guinea Tablebirds to see for ourselves if we have chicken there to supply the country,” said the Minister.

This is because there is a current ban on the import of chicken from Australia and Asia on the advice from NAQIA due to risks of diseases, and when there is an issue with the shipment domestically, it can result in the disruption of the supply chain and very long delays of chicken and poultry products from reach the shops and eventually the consumers. Hence, it is important to know the capacity of poultry production in PNG and where to improve on.