APEC, World Bank sign agreement to boost food safety

Issued by the APEC Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance's Food Safety Cooperation Forum

 

Big Sky, Montana, 18 May 2011 – APEC and the World Bank today signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen collaboration on food safety in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for over 40 percent of the world's population and nearly half of global food production.

 The APEC Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance's Food Safety Cooperation Forum and the World Bank will work together closely on training programs to improve food safety standards and practices in the region, as well as to facilitate trade.

 The programs will enable more growers, producers and food safety officials to understand and utilise preventative controls – resulting in safer food for consumers and fewer safety incidents in food trade.

 "Food trade is increasingly becoming a global issue with complex and inter-related supply chains, which raises the need to address the question of food safety," said APEC Secretariat Executive Director, Ambassador Muhamad Noor.

 Ambassador Noor added that global and regional cooperation on building the capacity of regulatory systems is key to reducing food incidents and boosting trust in trade. This enhances domestic commerce and export markets.

 "More widespread movement of food and livestock around the world requires vigilance on food safety and disease risk," said Inger Andersen, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. "More exacting standards pose challenges to poor farmers competing in these growing markets."
Signing the MOU with APEC today, Andersen said, "Food safety is an increasingly significant part of the World Bank's lending and technical assistance programs in East Asia and the Pacific, as well as in other regions. We are extremely pleased to be working with APEC to bring more attention to this critical issue. This new agreement will strengthen our joint efforts to mobilize resources and promote and support capacity building to better ensure food safety concerns," she said.

 Ms Andersen and the co-chairs of the APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum, Steve McCutcheon from Australia and Lin Wei from China, signed the MOU in the margins of a series of APEC meetings currently underway in Big Sky, Montana.

 "The MOU opens the way for an upscaling of food safety capacity building in the region," said McCutcheon and Lin in a joint statement.

 APEC Trade Ministers and Small and Medium Enterprise Ministers meet from May 19-21 in Big Sky, focusing on APEC's 2011 agenda to further advance free and open trade in the region.

 The APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum was established to bring together food safety regulators to develop a food safety framework and strategy and to carry out capacity building programs in this important area.

 

The memorandum of understanding is part of APEC's agenda to strengthen food security in the diverse region, home to about one quarter of the world's undernourished people. The region also accounts for half of world grain production and includes major exporters and importers of agricultural products.

 

APEC held its first APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security last October in Niigata, Japan, and committed to focus on raising agricultural productivity, facilitating trade and investment and expanding markets.

 

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For more information, contact:  Augustine Kwan +65 9831 0717 at ak@apec.org or Michael Chapnick +1 (202) 664 6245 at mc@apec.org

 

Museums and memory

 Yesterday was International Museum Day and on hand to join in the celebrations, at the National Museum and Art Gallery in Waigani, NCD, were youngsters Warita Irima (from left), Emerald Hamanin, Ednaldo Sarere and Evangeline Sarere as members of the Bougainville bamboo band, The National reports.

Based on the theme "museums and memory", the gallery organised a number of activities with the main event being an exhibition featuring musical instruments from around the country. – Nationalpic by AURI EVA

Nautilus completes Bismarck drilling

NAUTILUS Minerals has completed its 2010-11 seafloor drilling programme, with the vessel, rem Etive, having been demobilised in Singapore on Monday, according to Marketwire news, The National reports.

During the drilling programme in the Bismarck Sea between New Ireland and New Britain , Nautilus completed a 99-hole diamond drilling project, for a total of 1,475m.

Drilling was focused within the area of the mining lease (ML154) recently granted to Nautilus by the national government through the Mineral Resources Authority, which contained the Solwara One deposit and the Solwara Five seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) discovery.

 A total of 71 holes was drilled in ML154, for 1,147m.

The remainder of the drilling was conducted in exploration lease 1,374, which hosts Nautilus' Solwara 12 SMS discovery.

Nautilus' chief executive officer Steve Rogers said the highlight of the campaign had been the identification of mineralisation at depth at Solwara 12 and the improved knowledge gained at Solwara-1.

"We have commenced data evaluation and analysis and it is expected that results will be reported before the end of this year," he said.

Nautilus commissioned Golder and Associates to generate an updated resource estimate.

Nautilus is the first company to commercially explore the ocean floor for poly-metallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits and is currently developing its first project at Solwara-1 in the territorial waters of PNG.

Nautilus is listed on the TSX and AIM stock exchanges, and has, among its largest shareholders, two of the world's leading international resource companies namely, Anglo-American (11.1%) and Teck Resources (6.8%) as well as Metalloinvest, one of the largest and fastest growing mining and metallurgical holding companies in Russia.

Metalloinvest owns 21.0% of the company's issued shares through Gazmetall Holding (Cyprus) Ltd.

'Government parked K5 billion in bills with banks’

By JEFFREY ELAPA

 

THE government has parked more than K5 billion in treasury bills with commercial banks which has cost the state dearly in steep banking fees, opposition spokesman of finance and economic matters and Lae MP, Bart Philemon told parliament yesterday, The National reports.

He revealed this in questions directed at acting Prime Minister Sam Abal.

Philemon wanted to know why the government had banked revenue earned from high commodity prices with commercial banks rather than with the central bank which offers far lower rates to manage the fund.

He suggested that this practice was in breach of the Public Finances Management Act as well as due processes.

He added that the commercial banks received 5%-6% interest for managing the treasury bills which the central bank has to pay the banks while the interest paid to government was a mere 1%-2%.

Philemon said the central bank might have paid as much as K4 million to the commercial banks for managing the treasury bills.

"This is the biggest scam played by the government," he said.

The former finance and treasury minister said treasury bills should be held with the central bank as the authorised agent for all treasury bills. He said it appeared this established process had been bypassed the responsible departments and their political heads.

Philemon said that it was a poor decision by the ministers and the government to abuse all due financial management processes.

Abal said judgment of the performance of the ministers is the responsibility of the prime minister and it is not something for the parliament to know.

"I will not go into the discussion on the performance of the ministers as it has nothing to do with parliament," he said.

He said that the decisions to park the treasury bills are government policy decisions and directives and it was not done for any personal interest, adding that the government has approved it through the policy guidelines.

From a land of milk and honey

Caption: Milk, eggs, cream and yoghurt produced by EBC Farm at 6-Mile, Lae.-Picture by MALUM NALU

 

By MALUM NALU

 

Not many people may know that a farm just outside Lae has for years been supplying the city with fresh dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt.

It proves that Lae, and Papua New Guinea for that matter, is truly a land of milk and honey, as visitors to the recent NARI Agricultural Innovations Show found out.

Apart from these, the Evangelical Brotherhood Church (EBC) Farm at 6-Mile along the Highlands Highway also supplies fresh eggs, chicken, cattle, pigs and other livestock to residents of Lae.

The EBC was founded in 1974 in cooperation with the Swiss Evangelical Brotherhood Mission and one of its main activities to help spread the Word of God is through teaching young people about farming, which it does successfully at 6-Mile.

"We sell our dairy products on the farm at 6-Mile as well as supermarkets and hotels," says sales representative Charles Mark.

"We supply Melanesian Hotel, Lae International Hotel, Huon Gulf Motel, Yacht Club, bakeries, Papindo 8/6, Papindo Eriku, Pelgens, Andersons Foodland, Food Mart and others.

"At the farm, we have chicken, cows and pigs.

"We also have fish."

Bauka Blue: the true taste of Aiyura Valley

Caption: Marey Yogiyo displaying her Bauka Blue coffee at the recent NARI Agricultural Innovations Show.-Picture by MALUM NALU

 

By MALUM NALU

 

One of the upcoming brands of coffee in Papua New Guinea is Bauka Blue Kofi, produced entirely by a dedicated group of women from the beautiful Aiyura Valley, Eastern Highlands province.

It may not yet be in the big league of Chimbu's Kongo Coffee, Goroka Coffee from Eastern Highlands or Sigri Coffee from Western Highlands, however, is steadily developing a loyal fan base among missionaries at neighbouring Summer Institute of Linguistics, Kainantu, Bintangor Supermarket in Goroka, as well as SVS Stores.

Bauka Blue Kofi comes from the green rolling hills of Aiyura Valley, backed by beautiful blue mountains 1,200-1,800 metres above sea level in the Obura-Wonenara district of Eastern Highlands province.

The surrounding mountains are covered with tropical rainforest and beautiful morning fog, home to more than 114 species of birds identified so far out of 852 different types of birds found in PNG.

Of the 42 species of birds of paradise in PNG, four have been identified on the ridges around Aiyura.

Up to 50 different birds are frequent visitors to the shade trees, coffee gardens and secondary forest along the water ways.

Perfect environment for a perfect, environmentally-friendly Bauka Blue Kofi.

Marey Yogiyo, wife of coffee personality Jon Yogiyo, took part in the recent NARI Agricultural Innovations Show in Lae.

"We started it in 2000 as a women's coffee, involving ladies around the area where we live at Aiyura," she says.

"We realised that ladies spend a lot of time making and producing quality coffee, however, when everything was done, the men take the coffee to market and get all the money.

"We decided to do it ourselves.

"We help ladies.

"We pay school fees; attend to health problems.

"The ladies are happy to work together."

After picking, processing and drying, women of the Bauka group take their coffee to Arabicas in Goroka for roasting.

"I want to show farmers that we can make and drink our own coffee," Yogiyo says.

"Why should we work so hard and give it to somebody else?

"Bauka coffee is unique from other coffees because it is a single origin.

"Single origin means it comes straight from the block, from Aiyura."

Yogiyo says Bauka women have not yet secured overseas markets; however, that is not an impossibility.

Guava woman of Lae

 Edith Babul displaying Indian guavas at her stall at the recent NARI Agricultural Innovations Show in Lae.-Picture by MALUM NALU

By MALUM NALU

One of the most-popular stalls at the recent NARI Agricultural Innovations Show was that of woman farmer, Edith Babul, who runs Ngalonzua Farm at 16-Mile along the Highlands Highway outside Lae.

Her Indian guavas, some of them as big as young coconuts, sold like hot cakes on the day.

"I started my farm in 1992," Babul says.

"In 1995, I started growing Indian guavas, having my first harvest in 2000; however, I thought the demand wasn't there, so I only sold at Munum market.

"After that, I started selling at the main market in Lae, and now I have contracts with Papindo, Food Mart, Payless, Coronation school and some other Asian supermarkets.

"Business is going so well that I've also gone into oranges, water melons and soursop – a natural cure for cancer – which I supply on a regular basis to Angau hospital.

"I'm also into livestock like pigs, ducks and chickens."

Babul, a member of PNG Women in Agriculture, urges women to get into farming rather than sitting around gambling, chewing betelnut and wasting time.

"Farming is much better than sitting around doing nothing, gambling, etc," says the former Coral Sea Hotels' employer, originally from Northern province, but married to a local man.

"I now have 4,000 guava trees.

"Now I'm working for myself."