In Papua New Guinea, World Food Safety Day was celebrated at a conference attended by FAO and WHO representatives, with an opening speech given on behalf of the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Hon. John Boito, Coffee Minister, Livestock Minister and Oil Palm Minister.

The Minister’s speech started with a background to Papua New Guinea’s membership of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and thanks to the Directors General of FAO and WHO for the “excellent work done by FAO, WHO and Codex Alimentarius Commission”.

The Minister went on to underline the importance of developing and implementing international food standards, reminding the audience that, “Food Safety is a shared responsibility because its every ones business and one that demands the cooperation between public, private sectors and consumers as a whole”.   

                                                                                                                                                                                           “PNG must meet its domestic food needs and cannot rely on imported food continually because of food price hikes that have links between food safety, standards, fair trade practices, and hunger, poverty, malnutrition and violence,” the Minister stated. “Papua New Guinea is also grateful to donor countries for their partnership in increasing the food trade and promoting growth and helping to develop our economy to integrate into the global economy level through direct foreign investment.” 

In his speech, Minister Boito also underlined Papua New Guinea’s commitment to Codex work, describing how the multisectoral National Codex Committee, which includes the membership of secondary schools from the Central Province and National Capital District of Papua New Guinea, is dedicated to food standards development. The Minister identified specific examples of the development of a fisheries standard and a National Vanilla Standard, pointing out that Papua New Guinea is also actively involved in the Codex electronic working group that is developing the text for an international standard for vanilla. He also pointed to the country’s development of Export Guidelines, as well as work being developed by the National Codex Committee and relevant stakeholders on indigenous crops of economic importance to Papua New Guinea.

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World Food Safety Day events this year

Photo © Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Papua New Guinea