A rising middle-class in Papua New Guinea is seeing the emergence of a wider variety of food and beverage businesses, particularly in Port Moresby. It also reflects, say food specialists, an increasing demand for high quality food products in PNG.

The creation of the giant PNG LNG project has brought with it a demand for fresh and innovate choices of food and beverages, by Papua New Guineans and expatriates alike, says Gary Ormsby, Customer Service Manager Food Pro PNG, which recently opened Mity Meat Haus in Port Moresby.

Mity Meat Haus is an old-style butcher’s shop, the likes of which, Ormsby says, haven’t been seen in PNG since Hugo Berghauser had his butcher shop in Boroko in the early 1990s.

Demand

‘We realised there was a demand for people wanting quality and quantity; we provide everything from a whole carcass, bulk cartons of product, to top of the range steak.

Food Pro PNG began with two people in its wholesale business four years ago. Now it has a staff of more than 50.

‘We realised there was a demand for people wanting quality and quantity; we provide everything from a whole carcass, bulk cartons of product, to top-of-the-range steak.’

Its success is mirrored by two other food service business: Cairns-based Total Food Network, and Port Moresby’s specialist dessert caterer, Tapioca Delight (see box).

Affluence

Total Food Network’s success in PNG, and its expansion plans, reflect greater affluence now compared to 10 years ago, says PNG Managing Director, John Taylor.

‘A good example is the amount of fresh dairy we bring in now for supermarkets and caterers,’ he says.

‘On the retail side, the supermarkets are definitely selling a higher quality product now compared to five years ago, whether that’s fresh milk or tomatoes.’

Total Food Network’s John Taylor

TFN has a staff of 15 in Port Moresby, five in Lae and five on Manus Island, where it provides food services for the Regional Processing Centre there.

Piggery

‘We are now marketing and managing a piggery here in Port Moresby,’ says Taylor. It has around 5,000 pigs: ‘the only one of that size in this side of the country’.

‘Our business model is definitely one of vertical integration,’ he says.

While TFN sources the bulk of its products via Australia and New Zealand, where possible they source fresh fruit and vegetables from Port Moresby and the Highlands, as well as eggs, rice, flour and bottled water from Lae.

Local capacity

Employing local staff, training them and sourcing local ingredients is a big plus.

‘One thing about the Mity Meat Haus is that all our manufactured products are made in our Badili facility. We have a master smallgoodsman from New Zealand who trains his PNG staff on how to make these products using the best techniques,’ says Ormsby.

‘We have customers who prefer to buy our products rather than imported smallgoods, some even buying our gourmet sausages to fly to their family and friends abroad or to other locations in PNG.

‘All training is done on site, using the latest equipment, but we use the old fashioned way of making sausages. Our bacon, hams and smoked sausages are smoked the old way. We use a natural timber for our smoking, not a chemical smoke.

‘We see great export opportunities from PNG to Australia and the rest of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), be it meat, seafood or fruits and vegetables-but only once the commercial supply chain and Quality Assurance side of things are set up correctly.’

Mity Meat Haus is not just a butcher’s shop. It sells frozen vegetables, frozen fish, nibbles, pork, ham, and cheeses from New Zealand and Europe.

‘Probably the biggest kick I’ve got out of the whole thing was when people who are spending their hard earned money at the Mity Meat Haus want to come up and shake our hand for bringing them something that is different to the norm. It’s quite a humbling experience.’

Mity Meat Haus’ Gary Ormsby

Quality

The demand for quality delicatessen product reflects a rising middle class, says Ormsby.

‘Nowadays, Papua New Guineans won’t accept anything but the very best.’

Papua New Guineans also expect certified food.

Mity Meat Haus group has its own Quality Assurance team as well as qualified food technologist, to check that products sold are to the highest standard.

‘We’ve had people from Bougainville, Kiunga in Western Province and Southern Highlands, ask if we can create another Mity Meat Haus for their provinces.’

‘We’ve got a growing population and there are not enough products coming through to supply, particularly on the beef side of things.

‘We can’t buy enough quality local beef so, although we use what we can, we have to supplement with imported product.’

Taylor agrees the potential for PNG-sourced food is enormous.

‘Probably the biggest kick I’ve got out of the whole thing was when people who are spending their hard earned money at the Mity Meat Haus want to come up and shake our hand for bringing them something that is different to the norm. It’s quite a humbling experience.’

‘We see great export opportunities from PNG to Australia and the rest of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), be it meat, seafood or fruits and vegetables-but only once the commercial supply chain and Quality Assurance side of things are set up correctly.’

Tapioca Delight – specialist dessert caterer

Tapioca Delight is a small Port Moresby, home-based catering firm that began operating three years ago, and it’s flourishing.

Tapioca Delight’s Ginia Siaguru. Credit: BSP

It supplies cakes, cupcakes, and other desserts for corporate events, special occasions, birthdays and celebrations.

‘We specialise in dessert catering,’ says Ginia Siaguru, ‘so our main market are families. But since mid-2014 we have branched out into providing lunches and finger-food for corporate events.’

But it’s cakes that provide the mainstay of the three-person business, she says.

‘You can get creative with just about anything when it comes to cakes.’

Siaguru is bringing not just consistently good cakes to Port Moresby, but novel and creatively presented cakes.

‘And we are very busy,’ she says.

‘You should have seen me yesterday. Especially on public holidays, such as Christmas time and Easter, we get big orders. But on a weekly basis, it’s busy Thursday through Saturday, with a slightly quieter Sunday.’

With the help of her fiancé and a haus meri, Ginia caters for between 20 and 50 people, although the biggest group has been 150.

‘In the next two years, we’d love to start a cafe, and offer a full menu, for people to come, sit down, have a drink and a meal.’

Siaguru puts the success of Tapioca Delight down to providing a consistently high-quality product. Her advertising is through word-of-mouth and Facebook.