Conditional poultry ban in PNG

A conditional ban on uncooked poultry imports is in effect, according to the Papua New Guinea Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

The latest gazettal to undertake a conditional ban on uncooked poultry imports has already been made official by the National Quarantine Authority (NAQIA) and is in effect since September 12.

The process was completed last Tuesday (September 12), following the signing of instruments by the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Benny Allen on September 8.

The action taken by the ministry will see standards of poultry products entering the country meet the highest of quarantine standards used by New Zealand and adopted in processing poultry imports.

Gazettal number G715 has already been distributed to all major port facilities throughout the country to ensure border authorities adhere to the ministerial direction.

“What we have done is that we have distributed this to our ports for them to take note and apply the standard,” NAQIA managing director Joel Alu said.

The gazette revoked a previous national gazette made in June this year by the former minister Tommy Tomscoll to allow the importation of foreign poultry products from overseas markets into the country.

Standards currently used by New Zealand are amongst the highest standards in the world.

The actions will see the protection of local poultry producers and protect the country from poultry related risks from entering.

According to the ministry of agriculture and livestock, the local poultry industry produces in a year is 25,000 tonnes of chicken meat, 115,000,000 eggs, and 14,000,000 day old chicks.



SOURCE: PACNEWS