Agriculture & Fisheries

Home to a remarkable amount of biodiversity, rich volcanic soil, bountiful waterways and a moist tropical climate, Papua New Guinea possesses all the elements to fashion itself into a thriving agricultural exporter. These native assets have supplied the basic natural building blocks providing nourishment to country’s population throughout history, and more recently to the agribusiness industry for exporting cash crops such as coffee, tea, cocoa, spices, copra, rubber and palm oil. Given this abundance of naturally-occurring inputs along with a substantial labour pool already well versed in agriculture cultivation, the only stumbling blocks standing in the way of a robust agro-industry are the means to increase efficiencies throughout the value chain to make production and distribution more competitive.

This chapter contains interviews with John Kasu, Managing Director, National Fisheries Authority; and Robert Nilkare, Country Manager for Papua New Guinea, New Britain Palm Oil Limited; and a roundtable with Alan Bird, Agricultural Development Consultant; Ilan Weiss, Chairman and Executive Director, Innovative Agro Industry; and Sir Brown Bai, Chairman, Rural Industries Council.