THE STORY BEHIND THE VEGETABLE IMPORT BAN

by JAMES PERIAP

Ban on Import should be the Last Act in the line of protecting local farmers.

Firstly, there should be a policy on developing the agriculture sector. To this date, we do not know what is the agriculture policy and how far has that been implemented and where.

Secondly, and consistent with the supposed policy, there should be a growth in the domestic supply with emphasis on quality to substitute the market currently taken by the imported vegetables. The majority of our people are subsistence farmers but not yet sustainable commercial farmers.  The only known commercial farmer is the Nine Mile Hydroponic farm operated by controversial Israeli company –LR Group.

This company was involved in the controversial and illegal purchase of the two second hand generators for PNG Power Ltd from Israel that are now collecting dust and never being used. The generators were purchased at the cost of K144 million. The Prime Minister defended this illegal and fraudulent transaction. Already his Treasury Secretary, Daire Vele has an arrest warrant pending on this matter.

The Chairman of LR Group (PNG) is Illan Weiss, the son of Jacob Weiss. Jacob Weiss is an economist who has been in PNG since the early 1990s as an advisor to Bank of Papua New Guinea but is not new to controversy. Jacob Weiss was the one who structured the Cayman Island deal in the early 1990s when Paias Wingti was the Prime Minister. They borrowed K900 million on behalf of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, moved the funds to Cayman Islands, converted the cash into different currency, left the exchange variation gains there and looted thereafter, and brought the principal back into PNG.

For 10 years, Jacob Weiss was a director of PNG Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) that owned and operated the now closed down Ok Tedi mine. Immediately before Peter O’Neill expropriated Ok Tedi, Jacob Weiss resigned from PNGSD, claiming conflict of interest grounds. PM O’Neill fiercely defended the Ok Tedi takeover right to the end of its demise. It is believed Weiss was the brain behind the expropriation.

The illegal and fraudulent UBS loan of K3 billion loan is another signature transaction of Jacob Weiss. In fact, Jacob Weiss personally fronted up at a Government caucus in Parliament with the controversial Governor of BPNG Loi Bakani to defend the loan. Now we know that the investment with the Oil Search is worth just under K2 billion. PM O’Neill ferociously defended the illegal deal.

The PM today came to the aid of controversial Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll against a tirade of criticism by further issuing a three month total ban on imports of vegetables. In consolidating his government’s continued controversy, the PM boasted about PNGs potential to produce the best and nutritious vegetables in the world. He further lamented that we have vegetables that are of ‘higher standard’.

Off course we have the best organic vegetables that are and can be nutritious but has your government developed that potential? Who is producing that “higher standard” in the country at a commercial routine apart from LR Group? Have we developed the subsistence farmers into sustainable commercial farmers already?

If the bottom up preparation/ground work has not been done to eventually come to the final decision –to ban imports –then what is the real motive of the ban? Is the PM covering the real motive by further covering another blanket of 3 months after Tomscoll is exposed?

Many of us want our local farmers to step up and take up the market. But where is the government incentive on this? Without the preparation of local supply, this abrupt ban is suspicious and inhumane.

Let’s look at the connections that are at play:

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