Papua New Guinea’s leading rice manufacturer and distributer, Trukai Industries Limited has reached a significant milestone as it reaches its 50thanniversary in PNG.
From its humble beginnings in Lae, Morobe Province, on February 17, 1970, the company has now grown to be a leading household name in PNG with over 1,000 employees and 12 distribution centres nationwide.
Trukai Industries Limited, Chief Executive Officer, Greg Worthington-Eyre said this is a huge milestone for the business and dedicated it to all staff, past and present who have contributed to making Trukai to what it is today.
“Our success is driven by passionate people in our business that has supported us over the years. We also acknowledge our customers and consumers at large who are an integral part of our business and we remain committed to continue providing the best quality rice for them.
“Apart from providing food security for the people of PNG for the past 50 years, we are also proud of our social responsibility programs and our contributions back to the community, We have a strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program that spans across various social sectors such as education health, youth and women empowerment, sports and agriculture amongst others.
“We have invested significantly over the years across these various sectors and that is a testament of our strong commitment towards supporting the communiti9es in which we operate in,” he said.
‘Despite many challenges, Trukai had invested over K60 million in the past 15 years testing different agricultural crops, training landholders and providing equipment to provide food security capabilities in PNG.
“We are pleased to be the leading rice company in PNG that encourages and supports local communities to grow rice and provide them with income earning opportunities by providing them with market access.
“We want to ensure that we properly develop a viable local rice industry for PNG that can gradually reduce rice import overtime and we look forward to working with the government and relevant stakeholders to achieve this dream for PNG.
“After many years or trial and research, we are pleased with our most success story to date where we pioneered and delivered PNG’s first commercial rice project through our Markham Valley Rice Project in 2018. Unfortunately we are not able to continue new plans for this year due to challenges beyond our control such as law and order and landowner issues.
“However, we hope that this will be resolved soon and we can be able to continue on the project to help support the government’s vision to encourage and promote a viable rice industry for PNG,” he said.
Mr Worthington-Eyre also announced that just yesterday, Trukai Industries Limited signed an agreement with local landholders in Luhu LLG in the Nawaeb District of Morobe Province, to venture into commercial rice farming to supply the PNG rice market.
Last year, 38 tons of rice was harvested from the pilot project and it was proven that they can now upscale that to commercial farming.
When ready, the rice will be harvested and packed into Trukai Hamamas rice, which will be the brand to cater for all our local rice products.
As for the loyal consumers, there are promotions in place to reward them and it will be announced accordingly in the coming months.
