A recent investigation completed by the Department of International Trade & Investment over the past weekend found that the most affordable rice on the shop shelves in Port Moresby was Rigo Rice.
Rigo Rice is a locally grown and packaged, retailing at K3.50 per kilo.
The same investigation found that HS Jasmine Red/Gold was the most expensive on the shop shelves, retailing at K7.48 per kilo.
The Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru said he could not understand the rice pricing if rice was a price-controlled item.
“ICCC must explain why there is a big difference of up to 100% more from the cheapest rice to the most expensive one.”
“Rice is a very basic food item of Papua New Guinea. The people of this country are being ripped off as far as I am concerned.”
He said this is totally unacceptable and the ICCC needs to give a full explanation to the country and its 11 million rice consumers why the price of rice is not fixed at K3.50 per kilo across the board.
“This is one of the reasons why our people have been complaining about the high cost of living which has reached the highest level since independence.” PNG spends K900 million annually on imported rice.