"The Investigation into the Oil Palm industry by an independent investigation team has been completed," says Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru. Mr. Maru said the field visits by the team to East and West New Britain Province were completed on Thursday 30, January 2025. He said the team will be given three (3) weeks to finalize the investigation report for the National Executive Council (NEC) in Parliament. “It is my intention that before the end of February the investigation report will be tabled in cabinet and if the cabinet accepts the report, I will be requesting cabinet to approve the report to be presented in Parliament. Why is that important? This is the first investigation into the oil palm industry in the country in over 50 years. This investigation will form the basis of the policies that we will put together and the legislation to govern the operations of the oil palm industry into the future,” Mr. Maru said. He said that currently there is CIC which is the legislation that covers the coffee industry and there is legislation that covers cocoa. “Over the last 50 years we have not had legislation for oil palm, we only have the Oil Palm Industry Corporation (OPIC) which is the extension arm of the oil palm industry, but we do not have an overall oil palm industry regulation and industry structure. Right now, who decides the prices of oil palm when the world market prices are at K800-K900 or K1000, our farmers are still not getting that benefit. Do you know that we do not have a national price formular for oil palms in the country and we never had one. Where is the law that gives rights to a national price formular and if the oil palm companies do not pay the right price, who is the watchdog that watches over that and who should the growers go and complain to, no one,” Mr. Maru said. He explained that the reason we do not have such in place is because previous governments have failed to formulate and provide legislation for the oil palm industry. Mr. Maru said the gap in not having a regulatory framework around the oil palm industry has led to so much abuse and robbing of local oil palm farmers. “Based on the report and its recommendations the government will now be able to hold the oil palm industry to put in the policies, the regulations and the little structure around how we can manage the industry,” he added.