Steamships sells Laga to Paradise, Credit Corp profit falls, and Papua Niugini Freezers begins exports to Solomon Islands. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Owner of Paradise Foods, Paradise Beverages and Queen Emma Chocolates, Paradise Company Ltd, has reportedly acquired Laga Industries, owner of the popular Gala Ice Cream and other food products. Paradise Company acquired Laga Enterprises from Steamships Trading Company which has had an association with Laga Industries for more than 20 years.

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Credit Corp reported that 2017 operating profit (after revaluations and tax) fell to K75.8 million, a drop of 23.4 per cent from the previous year. Earnings per share in 2017 equated with K0.24, compared to K0.31 in 2016. But group total assets increased to K1,364.3 million, up from K1,249.2 million in the previous year. ‘Economic growth in our key Papua New Guinea market was once again slow in 2017,’ said Acting Chairman Johnson Kalo at the annual general meeting.

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Papua Niugini Freezers, a division of BNG Trading, has made its first successful export of quality locally produced small goods to the Solomon Islands. In announcing the export last month, Executive Chairman John Wallace said: ‘PNF is committed to contributing to the economy of PNG by means of employment, best practice implementation including staff development, food safety standards.’ PNF has its head office, production and warehouse facilities at Gerehu with regional offices in Lae, Kokopo, Kiunga, Manus and Mt Hagen.

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Bougainville President John Momis and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill have reportedly signed a joint resolution that will pave the way for referendum on Bougainville next year. While in Bougainville, O’Neill opened a K33.8 million upgraded district hospital in Arawa. The Arawa Health Centre was upgraded to a district level hospital through the PNG-Australia partnership with the Autonomous Bougainville Government’s Department of Health.

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Cocoa tree in Papua New Guinea. Credit: RNZI

The Cocoa Board has reportedly launched a new company to help small growers shift from subsistence farming to running a small profitable business. Chief executive Boto Gaupu, at the official launch last Friday in Kokopo, East New Britain, said the Cocoa Board has facilitated the establishment of the PNG Agriculture Company (PNGAC), a commercial entity that is owned by farming families.

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The Coffee Industry Corporation has announced the field results of a bio control agent after laboratory and field tests. Chief executive Charles Dambui said it had taken a while for CIC to come up with the agent to combat the coffee berry borer.

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About K360 million in goods was exported by PNG to the United States last year, a volume which has varied in recent years, United States Embassy Port Moresby Economic officer Brad Coley says. He told The National the embassy was looking at ways to increase trade and a recent agreement would allow them to provide US Department of Commerce services to businesses coming into PNG.

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The secondhand clothing business in PNG has been a major challenge to the textile and garment industry, according to the Small to Medium Enterprise Corporation (SMEC). Managing director Steven Malken said because of the high cost of making clothes and other products, local businesses could not compete against imported secondhand clothing and fabric.

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Greater compliance to building standards will halt the increase of substandard materials being supplied and used in construction, Markham Culverts general manager Ron Lane reportedly told a construction industry breakfast in Port Moresby last week. Lane said the prospects for the construction industry depend on the extractive sector projects.

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PNG is the only country in the world that can claim rugby league as its national sport. A motion tabled at the Australian NSW Labor Party annual conference in late June could be the key to the introduction of a Papua New Guinean team entering the NRL in the future. The motion calls for a future Federal Labor Government to support PNG’s NRL bid as a foreign policy initiative.

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Photograph of the week

An Australian political party, currently in opposition, has tabled a motion to have a Papua New Guinea team join the National Rugby League. Photo: AAP