The low Kina , Dutch Disease and Agriculture as Antidote.

By GABRIEL RAMOI

As PNG stands poised in entering the exclusive club of Gas Exporting Nations in 2014 we are beginning to see early symptoms s of  the debilitating effect of Dutch Disease on the economy with farmers in Hela given  up on Producing local Food for daily consumption and opting instead to buy imported tinned  food in Trade stores  using the over K1 Billion of the so call seed capital made available to land owners to placate them into allowing the establishment of the  First LNG Project in PNG and now with the free fall of the Kina  directly linked  to the slowdown to the construction phase  of the LNG project as it nears completion compounded with  a  over anxious Treasurer  keen on spending  ahead of the much anticipated receipt for the sale of its gas by running two deficit budget in a row.

The  antidote to the fall of the Kina and the Dutch disease  lies in revamping Agriculture for both the Export market and the domestic economy. Export of Agriculture products wins hard currency that helps push up the value of the Kina. There is a tendency to look at Agriculture export in terms of Oil palm and blaming Foreign Companies as dominating this sector and ruling out a role for ordinary  people  in participating in the Agriculture Export Trade and blaming the Government for the fall of the Kina and to look at artificial ways to prop up the Kina. This view is generated by educated Papua New Guineans working for a salary and who go through life trying to imitate and adopt Western and Australian Culture in particular without the hard work that goes with it. The most overt  of this imitated behaviour in the daily intake of alcohol at the Club after work. 

Well the truth is that the ordinary majority of Paua New Guineans earn their lively hood through the sale of Agriculture products and they now make up the Bulk of people involved in the Agriculture Export trade. These are the people that win the hard currency for PNG through the sweat of their labour, There is however a growing  needs for more to be done by the educated elite to get off their back side in supporting Agriculture by  ensuring that all type of Agriculture commodities and food products in particular from PNG grown by ordinary Papua New Guineans living in villages are brought into towns and cities to feed the population in these centres and at the time same time to participate at  innovative ways of marketing these products to the world.  

With the rise of e-commerce  I invite educated Papua New Guineans to access trading hubs such as Alibaba[ www.Alibaba.com] and see the enormous potential in the Food and Agriculture commodities in daily  demand by People all over the world with money to spend and requiring products we can easily supply and to participate in areas where they can make  a decent living out Exporting Agriculture Products to the World. As the pricing for products  sold to the world are denominated in  recognised trading currencies  such as the United State Dollar one could live comfortably from selling to the world and at the same time do you bit in arresting the slide of the Kina by winning hard foreign currency through exports.

There is also an need to up the tempo in our food security concerns particularly in the productions of edible starch such as  Sago, kaukau, Banana ,Taro , Yam and Tapiocca and to bring these products from our villages into our towns and cities to feed the urban population but also sell to other people of the world willing to pay for this products in large commercial quantities which should generally off set the cost of bringing these products to the market.

Papua New Guineans looking for cheaper imported consumer goods to mitigate again the fall of the Kina are urged to look to Indonesia and our land border with that country and to obtain materials such as Textile, plastic, ceremics and electrical goods from Indonesia at Batas on the PNG- Indonesia and to call of our Government to build up road accessibility to our border at Wutung where the Kina is convertible and has three times the buying power to the Rupiah and  is the currency of choice underpinning trade between PNG and Indonesia  at Batas. 

The inverse is true for the Australian Dollar where many Papua New Guineas will be finding it more difficult to maintain their homes or educate  their children that country and where Papua New Guinea may consider travelling  Port Moresby to Wutung  instead of   flying  to Cairns  for your shopping and  support and build up inter country trade. There is now an urgent need to discuss with Indonesia to further open our land   borders to enable ordinary Papua New Guineans to obtain cheap consumer goods to mitigate against  effect of the weak Kina.

Finally,  the PNG Government may consider looking and talking to  Australian Agriculture brands that are now closing shops all around Australia as a result of cheap imports of fruits and vegetables imported into that country and to offer  Australian Brands  incentives to open canned and processed fruit factories in PNG to take advantage of the low wages and abundant availability of Cheap labour in our Towns and Cities and village farmers ready to produce and supply to these factories with  sliced Ginger, Pineapple , Corn  and a multitude of other products that grows in abundance in this County.

Remember for every down side there is always  silver lining.