Indonesia, PNG sign agreement to expand food trade

JAKARTA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Officials of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Friday signed a cooperation agreement on protecting and controlling cattle and food plantations aimed at expanding food trade between the two countries, Indonesian officials said.

The agreement was signed between Head of Quarantine Section at Indonesian Agriculture Ministry Banun Harpini and her PNG counterpart Joel Alu in Bali.

Harpini said that the signing would boost trade between Indonesia and PNG, particularly in agricultural commodities.

Banun said the cooperation would further assure the security of agricultural products traded between the two nations.

"We estimated that after the signing, trade between the two countries may double in the following year," she said.

Two-way trade on agricultural commodities between the two countries stood at 2.5 trillion rupiah (about 178 million U.S. Dollars) throughout last year, Banun said.

Among Indonesian farm products needed most by Papua New Guinea were rice, frozen chicken meat, processed chicken meat, chicken eggs and live chicken for PNG chicken farm development, Banun added. Enditem