Oro Province to supply Rice to Trukai Industries

Trukai Industries Limited has reached another significant milestone, following the signing of a Rice
Development and Purchase Agreement (RDPA) with rice farmers from Oro province.
This Agreement will give Oro farmers opportunity for cash income from rice.
Trukai Industries is committed to supporting the development of smallholder rice industry in Papua New Guinea.
Recently, the Company entered into understanding with Provincial Governments, farmers and leaseholders
where pilot projects have been developed in the Central and West New Britain provinces.
The Company is now expanding similar support to growers in Oro where a Rice Development and Purchase
Agreement (RDPA) was signed today at its Lae head office. Present for the signing was Oro Governor, Hon.Gary
Juffa, MP; Chairman Rice Co-operative, Edric Saese; Economic Sector Chairman, George Orere; FirstSecretary to
Governor, Benstead Taru and Jarrod Pirie, Trukai’s Agriculture Manager.
Governer Juffa said the agreement will have wide reaching benefits for the province.
“Oro Province is well on its way to becoming the number one rice producing province,” he said.
“Trukai has confirmed that Oro has volume and experience to move into a commercial partnership.”
The RDPA is essentially a non-binding agreement between the growers and Trukai Industries with
supplementary support from the Oro Provincial Government. The agreement outlines the support Trukai will
provide in training, seeds, rice innovations, quality standards and information to enable rice farmers in the
province to grow rice that meets processing standards. The Company is committed to sourcing local raw rice as
part of its processing plan.
Trukai Industries is confident with the Oro rice farmers considering they have been growing rice over the last 15
years for consumption in small plots. This agreement hopes to encourage local growers to increase rice
production and supply most of it to Trukai Industries, to be blended into its rice products.
“This agreement gives growers in Oro province a guaranteed market access for their crop. This will give farmers
opportunity to create, wealth and income from rice. As a show of our commitment to support local growers and
develop the local rice industry, Trukai Industries has already paid K1, 400.00 to the first six growers who
supplied rice to the Company. This is a start to bigger things yet to come and we hope that farmers can take
advantage of this and grow more high quality rice that we can buy,” said Trukai Industries CEO, Greg
Worthington-Eyre who was present at the signing.