Skel Rice to hit shelves at a skel price

Goodman Fielder Marketing Manager Jeremy Fry showing the comparison from a standard 1kg pack (right) to the new 200gram pack.

  

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday Chronicle, September 25, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

THE Goodman Fielder family has grown by one, with the introduction of its latest addition to the Papua New Guinea rice market with Skel Rice.

Formulated over a two year period, the new rice brand is set to hit the shelves in Port Moresby tomorrow- trading at one of the lowest retail portions of rice and price, with its 200 gram pack, selling as low as K1.

An excited Goodman Fielder Marketing Manager, Jeremy Fry, said with the extensive national research conducted since February- a total of 753 individuals gave the company valued insight into the rice market.

“Since February we did research nationally and spoke to 753 people around the country who were cooking rice over the fire on the beaches in Kokopo, villages and churches in Morobe, and out in Hagen walking through the bush and through some settlement to see how people eat and cook rice,” Fry said.

“All of this was done so that we get the right product to launch for Papua New Guinea. We are quite proud to say that this rice that we have brought up is proudly grown for Papua New Guinea.”

“Our long term plan as part of Goodman Fielder is to start milling the rice at our new site in Lae, which we have just purchased land for, and that forms part of our longer term strategy to become the most complete food company in Papua New Guinea.”

With PNG currently importing 350,000 tonnes of rice per annum – Goodman Fielder is set to tap into a market that is worth close to K600 and K700 million, which is set to increase with population growth as stated by Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll in parliament last month.

Sales are set to begin in the nation’s capital, starting with medium grain rice selling in major wholesalers throughout the city and supermarkets.

In addition to the new affordable pack- Skel rice will also come in traditional portions of 10 kilogram (retailing at K39 lower), 1 kg (K4.20), and 500 (K2.30) grams also.

Goodman Fielder are manufacturer of household brand products in the country that include Medow Fresh milk, MedowLea margarine, Praise mayonnaise, Twisties, the well-known Flame Flour range amongst others.

Skel rice’s medium grain rice is imported from Vietnam, with jasmine and long grain rice from Thailand.

“Stage two of our rice development we are looking at milling onshore and longer term we are looking at working with the agriculture sector to start growing rice in the country,” Fry added.

“So before we start going into growing rice in the country what we want to do is to make sure that we have the right product and we actually know a bit on rice before spending millions on a rice farm.”

When asked about the intentions of government in introducing a quota and system and how it would affect the new product- the representatives maintained that any decision by the State would not affect the company as much due to the small market share it has compared to its competitors.

“From a corporate point of view we play by the rules set by the government that is set-as far as the corporate citizenship is concerned we do the right thing.”

“Of course we are concerned, but being such a small player in the rice game at the moment we have very little to lose.”

“There is probably other companies out there who aren’t as diversified as Goodman Fielder, which means that should the rice quota goes through they should have more to lose than we should.”