A local female entrepreneur, who has been supporting local taro farmers in the Morobe province by exporting their products to overseas markets, has been encouraged to continue with what she is doing with the help of the government to further grow the market opportunity of quality taro from Papua New Guinea (PNG). Mrs. Anna Wissink is the Managing Director of Muruk Tropical Produce Limited. The company exports frozen taros from PNG to selected markets in the United State of America (USA) and Australia. She operates by buying fresh taros from the farmers in the five districts of Morobe Province; that is Nawaeb, Huon Gulf, Markham, Finschhafen and Lae, and even from outside the province like from Mt. Hagen city in Western Highlands province, which she later exports. It is because of the focus of her business operation that she initially requested the Department of Agriculture to look at the demand for taro, the cost of freight, and the level of subsidies that could be provided for taro alone to support the local taro farmers. “We have been receiving requests from taro farmers across the country who want to sell their taros to us, but high freight cost is a serious issue that we are struggling with,” Mrs. Wissink said. “The taros are there; they are locked up in the village, we cannot move them to the market because of the freight cost.” While this has been going on, the demand for taro continues to increase in the markets the company exports to. “Our market in the USA wants us to supply eight 20-feet reefer of frozen taros a month- that is how big the market is. Our selling price for a 20-feet reefer (14 tons of frozen taro) to the USA is K136, 000 and to Australia is K126, 000.” “The market is there, the demand is there, the supply is there, and the farmers are willing to participate, but freight is a serious issue.” “We need government’s immediate assistance to this infant export industry by ways of freight subsidy,” Mrs. Wissink added. Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, while visiting her company in Lae city recently, acknowledged her concerns and assured Mrs. Wissink that he would request the Minister for Agriculture to look into this and have the department assist in the taro business. “Our short-term goal is to provide freight subsidy for taro alone and the long-term goal is to go into large-scale commercial taro farming in Morobe and expand to other provinces as the demand grows,” Minister Maru said. “The last thing we want is to kill the market opportunity by not being able to deliver more taros to meet the demand because it is difficult to get the taro to Lae due to high cost of freight." “We need to support our SMEs like Muruk Tropical Produce Limited and our taro farmers just like how we have supported our coconut, coffee, and cocoa farmers in the freight subsidy,” he added. Minister Maru also congratulated Mrs. Wissink for her efforts in exporting PNG taro to overseas markets and supporting local taro famers in the country.