The RD Group, producer of Diana canned fish brand, is serious about its investments in Papua New Guinea and is here for the long haul, according to its chairman and president Rodrigo E. Rivera.
Rivera said the Somare Government's export driven economic policy was in the right direction and the Government should use that to bring in more fish processing plants onshore.
He said this would create thousands of employment opportunity, bring in much needed foreign exchange to boost the PNG economy and more importantly reduce the price of canned fish by creating a healthy competition, adding that there was room for five or six more canneries in PNG.
He said the cannery does not operate any US Dollar account overseas for its export receipts, as 100 per cent of their receipts are brought back and pumped into the economy of the country. "We are bringing into the country, we are not taking money outside of the country,'' he said, adding that "RD is here to stay for the long haul, these are honest to goodness investments in PNG''.
The group, which operates the RD Tuna cannery in Madang, employs more than 2500 people - mainly local women - as well as another 500 on its fishing vessels catching the highly migratory tuna species in our waters.
Rivera said since 1995, the group has invested about K100 million in its cannery, cold storage, infrastructure including wharf and an ice plant.
The ice making plant, which produces 40 tons of ice per day, was built mainly to assist the local fishermen - an idea, which has now being further developed in conjunction with the European Union.
The company exports more than 100 containers of canned fish to Europe and the United States as well as Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu.
Despite criticisms by non-Government organizations about its quality control and standards, Rivera said it is one of the best in the world today.
"We are being criticized for what we are doing but our cannery is being accredited by the United States Food and Drug Administration so does the European Union,'' he said.
Part from that, it catches only three per cent of the total tuna catch of PNG, while Taiwanese, American, Korean and Japanese vessels harvest the rest to be processed abroad.
He said the company has spent its own funds and also gone out of its way to obtain 24 per cent duty free for exports from PNG to Europe, which all companies from PNG can utilize.
Rivera has recently been appointed by PNG Government as its honorary consul-general in the Philippines and he is going out of his way to bring in more investors from Philippines, especially in tourism, food processing, banking and other major investments.
Only last week, Rivera brought to PNG a major banker and two big businessmen, who were impressed with what they saw here.